Robinhood plans to launch a startups fund open to all retail investors 

Robinhood announced Monday it has filed an exertion with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to motorboat a caller publically traded money that volition clasp shares of startups.

The thought down the “Robinhood Ventures Fund I” is to let each retail capitalist entree to make wealth connected the hottest startups earlier they spell public.

While the existent mentation of the application is public, Robinhood hasn’t filled successful the fine-print yet. This means we don’t cognize however galore shares it plans to sell, nor different details similar the absorption interest it plans to charge. It’s besides unclear which startups it hopes this money volition yet hold. The paperwork says it “expects” to put successful aerospace and defense, AI, fintech, robotics arsenic good arsenic bundle for consumers and enterprises.  

Robinhood’s large transportation is that retail investors are being near retired of the gains that are amassed by startup investors like VCs. That’s existent to an extent. “Accredited investors” — or those with a nett worthy ample capable to handle riskier investments — already person a assortment of ways of buying equity successful startups, specified arsenic with task firms similar OurCrowd.  

Retail investors that are not affluent capable to beryllium accredited person much constricted options. There are funds akin to what Robinhood has proposed, including Cathy Wood’s ARK Venture Fund, a communal money which holds stakes successful companies similar Anthropic, Databricks, OpenAI, SpaceX, and others. 

Robinhood’s past specified effort was controversial. The trading institution launched what it called backstage “tokenized” stocks in the EU earlier this year, implying these tokens gave retail investors the quality to marque wealth from shares of backstage companies similar OpenAI. However, OpenAI denounced the product, pointing retired that buyers of these tokens were not really buying OpenAI banal — tokenized oregon otherwise. They were simply buying tokens pegged to prices of a backstage company’s stock.

This caller closed-end “Ventures Fund I” is simply a much classic, communal fund-style, approach. As to erstwhile Robinhood’s caller money volition beryllium disposable we don’t cognize that either yet. Robinhood, which is successful a quiescent period, declined to comment.