Capital

80 Private YC Startups Get a Public Stock Price

Robinhood Ventures Fund II (RVII) is set to list on the NYSE on 13 August 2026, offering retail investors, with no minimum, exposure to 80 private Y Combinator-linked companies.

CapitalBy Servola Tech Desk2026-08-074 min read

AI-assisted, edited by humans. | Editor-in-Chief: Leon Soliman | Editorial standards

80 Private YC Startups Get a Public Stock Price

Key takeaways

Robinhood Ventures Fund II (RVII) is offering up to 8,000,000 shares, up to $200 million, at an expected $25 each; the order window closes 12 August 2026 and NYSE listing is expected 13 August 2026, so the window to buy this exact 80-company basket at the IPO price is short and dated.
RVII is a business development company, a type of closed-end fund regulated under the Investment Company Act of 1940, not an ETF or a mutual fund, and it charges a 2 percent annual management fee plus a 20 percent incentive fee on realized gains, near 4.18 percent in total annual expenses.
The fund launches holding stakes in 80 private companies tied to Y Combinator, seed- and growth-stage rather than the mature, later-stage names that anchored Robinhood's first venture fund, so RVII moves the public wrapper a full stage earlier in the private pipeline.
No source confirms EU or UK retail access: shares are offered through Robinhood Financial and the TradePMR Fusion platform, both US-facing, so European operators should read RVII's trading price as a leading indicator for YC-anchored private valuations, not as a product they can buy into yet.

A public ticker for 80 private Y Combinator companies, listing 13 August

Robinhood is turning a slice of Y Combinator's private startup pipeline into a stock anyone can buy, no wealth test required. Robinhood Ventures Fund II, ticker RVII, has filed to offer up to 8,000,000 shares, split between 7,600,000 new shares from the fund and 400,000 secondary shares from Robinhood Markets itself, at an expected $25 apiece, which caps the raise at roughly $200 million. The order window runs 3 to 12 August 2026, with the fund expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on 13 August 2026.

There is no minimum investment and no accreditation requirement: Robinhood Financial customers and, separately, advisers on the TradePMR Fusion platform, can request shares regardless of income or net worth. At launch RVII holds stakes in 80 private companies that are current or former Y Combinator participants, or founded by YC alumni, with more names to be added each quarter as the fund deploys the capital it raises.

Why this is not last year's Robinhood venture fund

The bottom line: RVII is a stage earlier and a structure apart from what Robinhood ran before. Its predecessor, Robinhood Ventures Fund I, was built around mature, later-stage private companies at the frontier of their industries. RVII instead targets a broader set of early- and growth-stage companies, seed-heavy rather than pre-IPO, which is a materially different risk profile even though both funds share the same public-wrapper idea.

The wrapper itself is precise: RVII is a business development company, a type of closed-end fund registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940, not an exchange-traded fund and not a mutual fund. That distinction sets the cost structure. RVII charges a 2 percent annual management fee on net assets plus a 20 percent incentive fee on realized capital gains, and Robinhood discloses total annual expenses near 4.18 percent, well above what a passive ETF would charge for public-market exposure.

Beyond the listing: what a traded YC basket does to 'market price' in private equity

Why it matters beyond this one raise: RVII creates a continuously-traded, exchange-quoted price for a basket of YC-anchored private companies, something that previously existed only as a VC fund's internal mark-to-model, updated quietly and irregularly. For a founder or executive benchmarking equity compensation, a secondary-sale price, or a fundraising term sheet against 'what the market says a private company like mine is worth,' that used to mean calling a handful of VCs and comparing notes. Now there is a public number moving in real time on a public exchange, even if it prices a bundle rather than any single company.

The signal is partial, not a substitute for a company-specific valuation: RVII discloses its full holdings only quarterly, and its share price reflects investor sentiment about the whole 80-company basket, fees included, not a clean read on any one startup. But a bundled, live public price where there was previously no public price at all is still a new reference point, and operators who ignore it will be negotiating against a benchmark their counterparties can now see and they cannot.

The catch for European readers: a signal you can watch, not yet a stock you can buy

Be direct about access: nothing in Robinhood's filings or public materials confirms that EU or UK retail investors can buy RVII shares. The offering is distributed through Robinhood Financial, the firm's US brokerage arm, and through the TradePMR Fusion platform used by US registered investment advisers; neither is described as open to non-US accounts. Treat RVII, for now, as effectively a US-investor product.

That does not make it irrelevant in Europe. A European operator, founder, or fund manager gains a usable external signal even without a brokerage account: RVII's quarterly disclosures and its traded price offer a rough, live cross-check on how a basket of YC-style, US-anchored startups is being priced by public-market buyers, worth watching as a leading indicator rather than treating this launch as an invitation to invest.

Frequently asked questions

Can EU or UK retail investors buy RVII shares?

Not confirmed by any source. RVII is distributed through Robinhood Financial, a US brokerage entity, and through the TradePMR Fusion platform for US advisers. Neither channel is described as open to non-US accounts, so European and UK retail investors should assume, until Robinhood states otherwise, that this offering is effectively US-only.

Is RVII an ETF that tracks Y Combinator startups?

No. RVII is a business development company, a type of closed-end fund registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940. It trades on the NYSE like a stock once listed, but its cost structure, a 2 percent management fee plus a 20 percent incentive fee on realized gains, and its quarterly-disclosed private holdings make it structurally different from a passive ETF.

RVII does not make Y Combinator's private startups liquid, and it does not open its doors to European retail buyers on the facts available today. What it does is put a continuously-traded price tag on a basket of 80 YC-anchored companies for the first time, and anyone whose compensation, secondary sale, or funding round gets measured against 'market' now has a public number to reckon with, whether they ever own the stock or not.

RobinhoodY Combinatorventure capitalretail investingprivate marketsfund structure

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