Robinhood to list a fund that lets anyone back Y Combinator startups
Published: August 5, 2026 — TechCrunch (Julie Bort)
Robinhood unveiled Robinhood Ventures Fund II (RVII), expected to become a publicly traded fund on August 13 at an opening price of $25 per share.
Structure and raise
- Intends to raise as much as $200 million (Reuters)
- Will invest in startups founded by current and former Y Combinator participants, if those startups agree to sell shares
- Retail investors buy shares in the fund, not direct startup equity; fund shares are tradable
- Structured more like an SPV buying actual shares (vs. Robinhood’s 2025 crypto “tokenized” OpenAI/SpaceX products that OpenAI condemned)
Fees
- Pays typical VC 2/20 to a Robinhood-owned entity, plus extra fees
- Management fee ~2% of net returns; total fees just over 4%
- 20% carried interest to the Robinhood unit on gains
- Unclear end date for returning remaining profits (unlike typical ~10-year VC funds); regular cash distributions not clearly promised — returns may largely depend on fund stock price
Context: Fund I
- Robinhood Ventures Fund I (NYSE: RVI) buys stakes in private companies (e.g. Databricks, Mercor, OpenAI)
- IPO price 56 in May; later traded around $28
Caveats
Prior Robinhood products that name-dropped private companies (tokenized OpenAI/SpaceX) drew pushback. RVII claims to buy actual shares rather than synthetic tokens.