Retail brokerage Robinhood introduced plans to launch a fund that might give particular person buyers entry to a basket of personal firms. The initiative is positioned as an effort to handle persistent imbalances in entry to capital markets.
Nonetheless, the construction has drawn comparisons to the preliminary coin providing (ICO) period. Although the fund will probably be regulated, it carries a number of materials dangers.
Opening Non-public Markets To Retail
Robinhood formally introduced its Robinhood Ventures Fund I (RVI) on Tuesday, anticipating that it might go public on the New York Inventory Alternate (NYSE) within the coming weeks beneath the image RVI.
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The fund is ready to supply publicity to a spread of personal firms, together with Revolut, Oura, Ramp, Databricks, Airwallex, Mercor, and Growth. Robinhood additionally plans to broaden the portfolio over time, including extra personal corporations, together with Stripe.
Traditionally, investing in personal markets was restricted to establishments and the elite, however not anymore. With Robinhood Ventures, now you can get publicity to non-public firms like those listed beneath 👇 pic.twitter.com/vLwiKCukIW
— Robinhood (@RobinhoodApp) February 17, 2026
Based on the press launch, clients can request preliminary public providing (IPO) shares of RVI by way of Robinhood at $25 per share.
In contrast to many conventional personal market autos, RVI is structured to be out there to a broad vary of buyers with out accreditation necessities or minimal funding thresholds. The fund prices a administration payment however doesn’t impose efficiency charges. Its shares are anticipated to offer every day buying and selling liquidity, topic to market situations.
“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,” stated Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev.
Nonetheless, the transfer has generated skepticism concerning the underlying dangers of not directly investing in personal firms. For crypto veterans, the construction echoes a well-known dynamic seen through the ICO increase.
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Classes From The ICO Collapse
RVI supplies retail buyers with publicity to non-public development firms, a phase of the market traditionally dominated by institutional capital. The fund is an SEC-registered, exchange-listed automobile working inside established securities legal guidelines.
Nonetheless, its underlying holdings are personal firms whose valuations are primarily based on rare funding rounds somewhat than being continuously priced by the general public market. The businesses’ reported worth could not totally replicate altering market situations till a brand new funding occasion forces a reassessment.
RVI can be a closed-end fund, which means buyers can not promote their shares again at a assured worth. As a substitute, shares commerce on the inventory alternate, the place the worth can rise above or fall beneath the precise worth of the businesses the fund owns.
Because of this, buyers face two layers of uncertainty: the underlying private-company valuations and the market worth of the fund. Using leverage might amplify positive aspects but in addition enlarge losses throughout market stress.
Structural dangers of this nature had been most seen between 2017 and 2021, through the fast enlargement of ICOs.
Throughout that increase, retail buyers gained direct entry to early-stage ventures, typically pushed by forward-looking narratives regardless of unsure valuation frameworks and liquidity timelines.
By 2018, many ICO-funded initiatives didn’t ship viable merchandise or sustainable income fashions. Token costs collapsed as speculative demand light and regulators intensified scrutiny, wiping out billions and leaving retail buyers with losses.
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The episode uncovered weaknesses, together with restricted disclosure, info asymmetry, and heavy reliance on optimistic development assumptions. Whereas some initiatives advanced into reputable networks, the broader ICO cycle grew to become related to valuation excesses and uneven threat distribution.
This construction doesn’t make RVI equal to an ICO, however it helps clarify why comparisons have emerged.
When Excessive Valuations Restrict Upside
In each instances, retail buyers can entry high-growth alternatives that had been as soon as largely restricted to establishments, at the same time as transparency round valuations and exit timelines stays restricted.
The important thing concern raised by critics shouldn’t be regulatory oversight, however threat distribution.
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When entry expands with out steady worth discovery or assured liquidity occasions, buyers could face extended capital lock-up, sudden valuation changes, or publicity to elevated entry costs.
Some skeptics have additionally pointed to the fund’s particular composition. A number of of RVI’s highlighted holdings, together with Stripe, Databricks, and Revolut, have lately raised capital at valuations of $140 billion, $134 billion, and $75 billion, respectively.
Specializing in firms already valued very extremely could go away much less room for sturdy future positive aspects. It might additionally improve the danger of worth declines if private-market situations weaken.
Others contend that conventional enterprise capital methods typically search earlier-stage alternatives, the place valuations are decrease, however development asymmetry is greater.
In that framing, critics shift the controversy from entry to timing, arguing that retail buyers are getting into personal markets after valuations have already climbed somewhat than earlier than main development takes locations.
