Riding an AI rally, Robinhood preps second retail venture IPO

Just two months after listing its first venture fund on the stock market, Robinhood is preparing to launch a second. The company has filed a confidential registration for RVII, a standard regulatory step that allows it to work through the approval process before making details public. U nlike its first fund, which currently holds stakes in 10 late-stage companies — Airwallex, Boom, Databricks, ElevenLabs, Mercor, OpenAI, Oura, Ramp, Revolut, and Stripe — RVII will cast a wider net, investing in growth-stage and early-stage startups. It’s a meaningful distinction, given that early-stage startups are younger and carry more risk but also offer the potential for greater returns. The fundraising target for RVII has not yet been set, the company said in a blog post . For its inaugural fund, Robinhood sought to raise $1 billion but ultimately fell several hundred million short of that goal. Despite the shortfall, the first fund has performed strongly. RVI — the ticker for Robinhood’s first fund, which trades on the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) — debuting on the NYSE at $21 a share in early March and has since more than doubled, closing on Monday at $43.69. Market enthusiasm for the AI prospects of the fund’s underlying startups has likely fueled the stock’s rise. The premise behind both funds addresses a longstanding gap in who gets to invest in startups. …