Robinhood Offers Retail Investors Chance to Back Y Combinator Firms

Y Combinator is a startup accelerator whose alumni include DoorDash, Instacart and Airbnb.

Now, trading platform Robinhood says it wants to give retail investors a chance to back that organization’s future graduates as it announced Robinhood Ventures Fund II (RVII), the second fund from Robinhood Ventures, on Wednesday (Aug. 5).

“Historically, retail investors have been locked out of private companies in their earliest stages, which can be among the biggest wealth creation opportunities available,” the company said in a news release. “Today, Robinhood sets out to change that.”

RVII is expected to list on the New York Stock Exchange Aug. 13, the release said, with a window to request shares due to close the day before.

According to the release, the goal is to make seed investments in “promising companies” that show significant potential to growth, with a focus on current or previous Y Combinator participants, or those with a founder or co-founder who has been a part of that program.

Since 2005, Y Combinator has funded more than 5,000 companies with a combined value of over $1.3 trillion, including 100 “unicorns” with valuations above $1 billion.

“The next generation of promising startups is being built today,” said Sarah Pinto, head of Robinhood Ventures. “With Robinhood Ventures Fund II, retail investors no longer have to wait until a company’s IPO to be part of an early growth journey.”

Robinhood Ventures in February introduced its first fund, Robinhood Ventures Fund I (RVI), saying it wanted to offer everyday investors access to private markets, with an initial portfolio of companies that included Airwallex, Ramp and Revolut.

“Opening up private markets will resolve one of the greatest longstanding inequities in capital markets today, and we’re excited to bring these opportunities to all with Robinhood Ventures Fund I,” Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev said in a news press release at the time.

In other Robinhood news, PYMNTS wrote last month about the company’s latest earnings call, which shows it moving beyond its earlier role as a retail broker. During that call, management stressed that Robinhood’s next era will not focus primarily on processing more trades.

“Across prediction markets, tokenized assets, banking and credit cards, the financial platform is attempting to control more of the customer relationship and more of the transaction stack beneath it,” PYMNTS wrote.