News

Riding an AI rally, Robinhood preps second retail venture IPO

Published

5 months ago

May 12, 2026

Vlad tenev robinhood GettyImages 2272038864.jpg

Just two months after listing its first venture fund on the stock market, Robinhood is preparing to launch a second. The company has filed a confidential registration for RVII, a standard regulatory step that allows it to work through the approval process before making details public.

Unlike its first fund, which currently holds stakes in 10 late-stage companies — Airwallex, Boom, Databricks, ElevenLabs, Mercor, OpenAI, Oura, Ramp, Revolut, and Stripe — RVII will cast a wider net, investing in growth-stage and early-stage startups. It’s a meaningful distinction, given that early-stage startups are younger and carry more risk but also offer the potential for greater returns.

The fundraising target for RVII has not yet been set, the company said in a blog post. For its inaugural fund, Robinhood sought to raise $1 billion but ultimately fell several hundred million short of that goal.

Despite the shortfall, the first fund has performed strongly. RVI — the ticker for Robinhood’s first fund, which trades on the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) — debuting on the NYSE at $21 a share in early March and has since more than doubled, closing on Monday at $43.69. Market enthusiasm for the AI prospects of the fund’s underlying startups has likely fueled the stock’s rise.

The premise behind both funds addresses a longstanding gap in who gets to invest in startups. Under federal rules, only “accredited” investors — those with a net worth exceeding $1 million or annual income above $200,000 — can put money into private companies. That has historically locked ordinary investors out of the earliest and most lucrative stages of a company’s growth. RVI and now RVII, are designed to change that, letting anyone invest in a portfolio of private startups through a regular brokerage account.

“You can think of [Robinhood Ventures] as a publicly traded venture capital firm with daily liquidity. No accreditation requirements and no carry,” Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev said in an interview at The Wall Street Journal’s Future of Everything conference last week. Daily liquidity means shares can be bought or sold any day the market is open, unlike traditional VC funds, where capital is locked up for years. No carry means Robinhood doesn’t take a percentage of investment profits, as conventional venture firms typically do.

Over the past few years, the most valuable AI startups have gone from early bets to companies worth tens or hundreds of billions of dollars, and almost all of that appreciation has happened in the private markets, out of reach for most investors.

Tenev’s longer-term vision goes further still. “The aspiration is, if you’re a company raising a seed round and a Series A round — so, just first capital — retail should be a big chunk of that round, much like it now is in the public markets,” Tenev said at the conference. “And we should let those people in at the ground floor, so that they can actually benefit from this potential appreciation that’s increasingly happening in the private markets.”

If that vision takes hold, it could fundamentally change how startups raise their earliest capital, with retail investors eventually sitting alongside venture firms, including in the earliest rounds, where the biggest returns are often made, a whole lot of money is lost, as well.

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Related Topics:IPO preps rally retail Riding Robinhood venture

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'Atiku’s push for return of power to North is insult' — Laolu Akande

Published

33 minutes ago

October 23, 2026

PlateauReports

Former presidential aide Laolu Akande has criticised the African Democratic Congress, ADC, presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar's reported position on power returning to the North, describing the argument as an insult to Nigerians from the region.

Akande, a former Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity in the Office of the Vice President, made the remarks while speaking on Symfoni TV on Friday.

Speaking on the readiness and viability of presidential candidates ahead of the coming election, Akande argued that the country must maintain the principle of rotational presidency to promote a sense of belonging among its various regions.

“Atiku is just basically saying that, okay, the North is angry; we want power back. And that idea, with due respect to our brothers in the North, is an insult. It’s an insult. This country, we must maintain rotational presidency for purposes of building a sense of belonging,” he said.

Speaking on the ADC's choice of presidential candidate, he said, “If they were serious, they should have picked Amaechi, or they should have prevented Obi from leaving, and then Atiku would have been a star.”

‘Atiku’s push for return of power to North is insult’ — Laolu Akande

Health

Ebola: Nigeria case highly similar to Kenya infection

Published

35 minutes ago

October 23, 2026

PlateauReports

The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Pate, has confirmed that the Ebola virus detected in Nigeria is highly similar to the virus identified in Kenya’s first imported case.

Mr Pate disclosed this on Friday during a briefing at the Federal Ministry of Health in Abuja, saying genomic sequencing showed that the viruses differed by only one mutation.

He said the analysis was conducted by sequencing teams at the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) and the Institute of Genomics and Global Health at Redeemer’s University, Ede, Osun State, with the team led by virologist Christian Happi.

However, he cautioned that the finding does not establish how the Nigerian first case acquired the infection.

“Based on the genomic analysis, there is no evidence of travel of that index case in Kenya that links it to Nigeria, but the viruses are appearing to be related,” he said.

He added that the finding could change the understanding of the route of transmission as further investigations and testing continue.

Kenya has so far recorded nine confirmed Ebola cases caused by Bundibugyo virus, including one death, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). Eight of the cases were linked to the country’s first imported case from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), including four healthcare workers.

Africa CDC probes link

The genomic finding came on the same day the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said it is investigating a possible connection between Nigeria’s case and Kenya’s first imported case.

The agency said both patients had travelled through Entebbe International Airport in Uganda on 3 October, prompting investigations into whether they had shared equipment or had other contact. Africa CDC, however, stressed that no connection had been established between the infections.

The Kenyan patient travelled from the DRC through Uganda before arriving in Nairobi. He later died, becoming the first recorded Ebola death in Kenya’s current outbreak.

The Nigerian patient also passed through Uganda, but Ugandan authorities had earlier rejected suggestions that this established the country as the source of her infection.

Uganda denies active case

On 21 October, Uganda’s Ministry of Health said it had no confirmed active Ebola case and that the Nigerian patient’s transit through the country did not establish that she contracted the virus there.

The ministry said preliminary information indicated that the Nigerian woman had travelled to eastern DRC for business and passed through Uganda in early October without showing symptoms. It said the location of her exposure remained under investigation.

The new genomic finding now provides evidence of similarity between the Nigerian and Kenyan infections, although Nigerian authorities have not established that the patient was infected in Kenya.

One confirmed case

Mr Pate said Nigeria still has only one confirmed Ebola case and that authorities were continuing contact tracing, quarantine and additional testing of contacts.

Some tests have returned negative results, while others are pending, he said.

He urged Nigerians to remain vigilant but calm, saying there is no need for panic.

“We will continue to work diligently to ensure that we contain this virus as much as possible, and that we avoid a situation that spills over to the communities,” he said.

READ ALSO: Ebola: Atiku demands details of FG’s N10bn emergency fund

The minister said the government is also strengthening infection prevention and control measures in health facilities and would train health workers on how to identify and manage suspected cases.

He urged hospitals to notify public health authorities of suspected cases and encouraged Nigerians to observe basic preventive measures, including regular handwashing and hygiene.

Mr Pate also said Ebola is not currently known to be transmitted through the air but through close contact with infected body fluids.

He urged Nigerians to rely on information from public health authorities, including the NCDC, Federal Ministry of Health, World Health Organisation and Africa CDC, rather than unverified information on social media.