Exclusive: RVI Tumbles 16% On Debut, Robinhood Ventures President Hints At Future IPO Payouts

• The closed-end fund gives retail investors exposure to private companies, including Databricks, Revolut, Ramp, Oura, and Airwallex.
• In an exclusive interview with Stocktwits, Robinhood Ventures president Sarah Pinto Peyronel said the fund may distribute proceeds to shareholders if it sells holdings following an IPO event.
• Retail investors on Stocktwits appeared especially interested in Databricks, which recently raised capital at a $134 billion valuation and is widely viewed as a potential IPO candidate.

Robinhood’s push to give retail investors exposure to pre-IPO companies got off to a muted start in public markets on Friday, but the Robinhood Venture Fund I (RVI) could deliver a windfall if one of its portfolio companies were to go public.

“We structured the fund so that we would be able to hold positions for the long term and so that we would see every decision like an IPO, as a new investing decision,” Sarah Pinto Peyronel, President of Robinhood Ventures, told Stocktwits in an exclusive interview when asked what would happen if Databricks, one of the private companies in the fund, were to go public.

“We can decide to hold, we can decide to buy it in IPO, but if we do decide to sell, for example, part of our position, we will absolutely distribute to our shareholders,” she said.

Robinhood Venture Fund I Debut Draws Mixed Retail Reaction

RVI’s price gained 1.75% in overnight trade after a drop of 15.80% in the regular session. Robinhood Ventures Fund priced its initial public offering at $25 per share, but the fund opened at $22 and hit a low of $21 before closing the day at $21.42. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around RVI rose to ‘extremely bullish’ from ‘bullish’ territory over the past day as chatter increased to ‘extremely high’ from ‘high’ levels.

One user said that the IPO should have been priced lower, perhaps at $20.

Another said the RVI’s public debut was so bad that it reminded them of Facebook’s 2012 IPO, which crashed as soon as it opened and fell more than 50% over the next couple of months.

Meanwhile, shares of Robinhood (HOOD) edged 0.60% lower after-hours following a dip of 4.31% in regular trade. Retail sentiment around the company on Stocktwits remained in ‘bearish’ territory over the past day.

IPO Exits Could Deliver Investor Windfalls

According to RVI’s prospectus, it is “not required to and does not currently intend to pay dividends” on its holdings to shareholders. Simply put, closed-end funds like RVI generally do not distribute proceeds from underlying holdings, such as gains from a potential Databricks IPO, to shareholders automatically. Instead, the gains are added to the fund's net asset value (NAV). 

However, Peyronel suggested that it may not always be the case. According to her, there is a possibility of proceeds coming to shareholders, potentially creating a windfall if high-profile private companies in the portfolio achieve successful public listings.

Investors Watch Databricks And Stripe Exposure

Robinhood Ventures I Fund currently holds positions in Airwallex, Boom, Databricks, Mercor, Oura, Ramp, and Revolut – all past the status of ‘unicorn’ startups, except for Boom. Peyronel added that the firm is “days” away from closing its $14.6 million investment in Stripe and is negotiating stakes in “highly valued” companies like OpenAI.

Some retail investors on Stocktwits said their primary reason for investing in RVI was exposure to Databricks. Like Anthropic, Canva, and OpenAI, the company is widely expected to go public due to its high valuation. It reported raising $5 billion in February at a valuation of $134 billion. 

Airwallex is at least two years away from an IPO, according to co-founder Jack Zhang, while Revolut is reportedly aiming for a $150 billion IPO, but not this year.

Read also: Exclusive: Robinhood Ventures Eyes OpenAI, Other 'Highly Valued' Companies For New Fund

For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com.

Share

·

Add us on