Robinhood’s startup fund stumbles in NYSE debut

Robinhood launched Robinhood Ventures Fund I, a publicly traded vehicle giving retail investors exposure to eight private startups including Stripe, Databricks, Ramp, and Revolut. The fund fell short of its $1 billion target, raising $658.4 million, and shares dropped 16% on their NYSE debut. The underwhelming reception is attributed to the fund's lack of exposure to highly anticipated IPO candidates like OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceX. Robinhood plans to expand the portfolio to 15–20 companies and is eyeing OpenAI, but gaining access to elite startup cap tables remains extremely difficult even for well-connected firms.