Retail venture bet stumbles as Robinhood fund crashes by 11% on NYSE debut

Robinhood took a hit on Friday when Venture Fund I fell 11% in its first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

The closed-end fund, which trades under RVI, was pitched as a way for retail investors to get exposure to private companies that usually stay out of reach until very late.

Robinhood Ventures Fund priced its IPO at $25 per share, opened at $22, dropped as low as $21, then climbed a bit to around $22.12 before changing hands at $22.17.

Robinhood pushes private-market access to retail traders through a fund that trades like a stock

On Friday, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev said:-

“You have companies that are out there at valuations in the hundreds of billions, even getting into the trillions in private markets before retail investors get a chance to come in at all and this is happening more and more.”

Vlad added that, “We’re trying to solve this by not just opening the door to private markets but completely blowing them off the hinges so that they can never be closed.”

That pitch sits at the center of the product. Retail investors can buy and sell shares of the fund much like they would trade shares of a normal listed company, even though the structure is that of an investment firm.

That is the bigger gamble here. Private firms are reaching huge valuations while staying outside public exchanges, and Robinhood wants to make that part of the market easier for non-rich investors to touch.

Robinhood expands into premium cards and family investing

At the same time, Robinhood is not betting on one lane. The company, which started out as a stock trading app, said it now has more than 700,000 Gold Card users and more than $10 billion in annualized spending on that product.

Now it is going after the high-income credit card crowd, a market long dominated by American Express and JPMorgan Chase, with an invite-only Platinum Card. The new card promises credit limits up to five times higher than the Gold Card.

The price is steep. The Platinum Card may carry a $695 annual fee, but Robinhood says the package offers more than $3,000 in value each year. The benefits listed include 5% cash back on dining, a range of health and wellness perks, 10% cash back on hotels and rental cars, and another 5% on flights booked through its app.

Deepak Rao, general manager and vice president of Robinhood Money, said, “We built the Gold Card to be the best card for everyday spending, and customer demand showed us there was room to push the boundaries even further.”

He added, “The Platinum Card offers higher limits, elite rewards and luxury benefits, and raises the bar for what customers should expect from a premium credit card.”

The company is also rolling out custodial accounts aimed at families.The feature will let parents and guardians invest on behalf of a minor, while the assets will legally belong to the child and transfer automatically when that child reaches the age of majority.

Abhishek Fatehpuria, vice president of product at Robinhood, said, “We’re reimagining what wealth-building will look like for the next generation of families as we prepare for the Great Wealth Transfer.”