Robinhood (HOOD) is dipping its toes into the world of private markets, filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch its first publicly-traded fund. Ironically, a fund that offers exposure to private companies.
Robinhood Ventures Fund I plans to offer exposure to private “companies at the frontiers of their industries.” Without offering specifics on the contents of its first fund, the company says that it will plan to “hold investments for the long-term through IPO and beyond” while investing “across a number of sectors.”
The company’s first foray into private investing comes as an increasing number of firms choose to stay private for longer. Since 2000, Robinhood says that the number of publicly-traded firms has fallen from 7,000 to 4,000, while the value of private firms have grown to over $10 trillion. Among the largest firms still privately-traded are social media giant TikTok, space company SpaceX, and payments goliath Stripe, among others.
“For decades, wealthy people and institutions have invested in private companies while retail investors have been unfairly locked out,” Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev said. “With Robinhood Ventures, everyday people will be able to invest in opportunities once reserved for the elite.”
However, it still remains to be seen what the cost for ‘investing like the rich’ will be.
Funds with a similar structure to Robinhood’s proposed fund, like the Destiny Tech 100, charge a 2.5% annual management fee for exposure to 22 private firms — including SpaceX, Revolut, and OpenAI. Fundrise, which offers a closed-end fund through its online fintech platform, has raised $250 million for its Innovation Fund, with exposure to firms like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Databricks. It charges an even higher 3% annual fund expense.
Those fees are especially steep when compared with exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tracking major indexes like the S&P 500. In fact, compared with the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) , the fees are 85x and 100x higher respectively. If the private investments do eventually appreciate and IPO, that premium could be worth it.
The new Robinhood Ventures announcement comes just days after Robinhood was added to the S&P 500. It also comes after the firm announced a series of new features for traders at its annual HOOD Summit, including new AI features and a forthcoming social platform that seeks to take on trading apps like Stocktwits and AfterHour.
Related: Robinhood just announced these big new features for traders