Brokerage agency Robinhood is planning a closed-end fund that will give retail buyers entry to its enterprise capital portfolio — an area historically reserved for establishments and high-net-worth people.
The brokerage disclosed Monday that it has filed a Kind N-2 with the US Securities and Alternate Fee (SEC) to register shares of the Robinhood Ventures Fund I (RVI), which might be managed by its new subsidiary, Robinhood Ventures DE.
If authorized, shares of RVI might be listed on the New York Inventory Alternate, the place they are often purchased and offered by way of taking part brokerage platforms.
Robinhood stated the fund will again corporations “on the frontiers of their respective industries,” although it didn’t title particular sectors. Enterprise funds usually give attention to high-growth areas comparable to rising applied sciences, blockchain and Web3.
Opening these investments to retail buyers would mark a shift in entry. Till now, participation in early-stage, personal corporations has largely been restricted to enterprise capital companies and rich backers.
Robinhood’s enterprise technique might lengthen into digital belongings, an space the place the corporate has been increasing aggressively. It already affords cryptocurrency buying and selling, just lately acquired main change Bitstamp and acquired Canadian crypto agency WonderFi for $179 million.
The brokerage has additionally pushed into tokenization, providing tokenized shares and experimenting with “personal inventory tokens” — a product that has drawn scrutiny from some business observers.
Associated: Robinhood’s 24/7 tokenization push threatens NYSE revenues: Galaxy Digital
Crypto enterprise capital is on the rise
Enterprise capital funding has rebounded in 2025, led by a surge in US startups targeted on synthetic intelligence. World VC funding totaled $189.3 billion within the first half of the yr, up from $152.4 billion in the identical interval of 2024, based on S&P World.
Whereas crypto enterprise funding stays a small element of the general VC panorama, the sector drew $10 billion within the second quarter alone — its strongest exhibiting since 2022, CryptoRank knowledge present. Firms raised greater than $10 billion in Q2, with June contributing over half that quantity.
Key themes driving crypto funding embrace tokenization, stablecoin infrastructure and decentralized finance. Below US securities legislation, many of those early-stage personal choices stay restricted to accredited buyers, curbing retail participation.
Robinhood’s proposed enterprise fund, if authorized, might provide an oblique path for retail buyers to realize publicity to an asset class they’ve largely been excluded from.
Journal: Can Robinhood or Kraken’s tokenized shares ever be really decentralized?
