Background: Robinhood is the US trading platform famous for pioneering commission-free trading and bringing millions of retail investors into the stock market. Today, it has more than 20 million funded accounts, many of them younger investors who started trading meme stocks during the pandemic.  

What happened: Robinhood recently launched Robinhood Ventures Fund I, a fund that's designed to give everyday investors exposure to private startups. The fund includes stakes in companies like Stripe, Databricks, Airwallex, Revolut and Oura.

What else: The fund had a $1 billion target but ended up raising just $658 million. On its first day of trading, the fund's shares price fell 16%, so maybe the investor demand wasn't as strong as expected.

What's the key learning

💡 Some of the biggest gains in companies today happen before the IPO bell every rings.

💡 Private markets have grown rapidly over the past decade, with the median age of companies staying private rising from 6.9 years in 2014 to 11 years today, meaning much of the growth happens before a company lists.

• Canva, which has raised nearly $600 million across more than 10 funding rounds
• Stripe, which has raised nearly $10 billion across more than 20 rounds

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💡 Because retail investors usually can’t access those early rounds, products like Robinhood Ventures are trying to bridge the gap. They essentially bundle private company stakes into a fund that can trade on a public exchange