Robinhood Ventures Fund I raised less than its target, closing down 16% on the first day

Robinhood's venture fund, Robinhood Ventures Fund I, made its debut on the NYSE this week, closing on its first day at $21, a drop of 16%. The fund aims to open investment opportunities in popular private companies to retail investors, with a target raise of $1 billion, currently having secured only $658.4 million (which could reach $705.7 million if underwriters exercise full subscription).

The fund's holdings include companies like Databricks, Stripe, Mercor, Oura, Ramp, Airwallex, and Revolut, but it lacks exposure to widely anticipated high-valuation upcoming public companies (such as OpenAI, Anthropic, SpaceX), which is considered a major reason for the lack of retail interest. Robinhood stated that it plans to expand the fund in the future to include 15-20 high-quality late-stage growth companies and is actively seeking to join the equity tables of popular startups like OpenAI.