Robinhood Ventures Fund I, the New York Stock Exchange-listed fund that gives retail investors exposure to private companies, said on 23 October 2026 that it has closed investments in Cognition worth approximately $10 million in total. Cognition builds Devin, which it describes as an autonomous software engineer.
Fortune, which reported the investment as an exclusive on 23 October 2026, wrote that it was part of Cognition’s Series E round in September, which raised more than $2 billion at a $48 billion valuation. The fund, ticker RVI, invested $75 million in OpenAI in April, Fortune reported.
Business Pill · CONCENTRATION
A short Business Engineer explainer of concentration, when a few big pieces make most of a total. It teaches the general idea only and says nothing about Robinhood or Cognition.
The key insight: As we read it, the new element is the pairing: the same retail fund that holds OpenAI, according to its 30 June filing, now also says it has invested in Cognition, and its head told Fortune: “It’s not a winner-take-all market.”
The investment. Approximately $10 million in total, according to the fund’s release. Fortune reported $10 million and wrote that Robinhood is disclosing its participation for the first time, joining backers including Andreessen Horowitz, Accel and Founders Fund.
Cognition’s revenue. The release says Cognition recently crossed $1B in annualized revenue run rate. Fortune wrote that Cognition said in September its annualized revenue run rate had reached almost $900 million, up from $492 million in May.
Customers. The release says Devin is deployed at institutions including Goldman Sachs, Citi, Wayfair, Mercedes Benz and Nubank.
The fund. RVI began trading on the NYSE on 6 March 2026. The release describes it as a closed-end fund with no accreditation requirements, no investment minimums, a competitive management fee and no performance fees.
“Cognition is one of the defining companies of the AI-driven software era, and it represents the type of company retail investors should have access to through RVI,” Sarah Pinto, President of Robinhood Ventures Fund I, said in the release. On backing both Cognition and OpenAI, Pinto told Fortune: “It’s not a winner-take-all market.”
Robinhood Ventures Fund I’s company holdings on 30 June 2026, by value, from its SEC Form N-PORT filed 21 August 2026 (Databricks and Ramp each add two share lines, our arithmetic). The fund also held $220.1 million in a government money market fund. Cognition, announced 23 October 2026 at approximately $10 million, is not in that filing.Robinhood Ventures Fund I’s largest positions on 30 June 2026 in its SEC Form N-PORT (Databricks adds two share lines, our arithmetic): Databricks $86.6M, OpenAI $75.0M, Mercor $53.4M, Revolut $49.8M; plus the approximately $10 million Cognition investment the fund announced on 23 October 2026.
What the Fund Held on 30 June 2026
RVI’s most recent holdings report on the SEC’s EDGAR system, a Form N-PORT filed on 21 August 2026, lists its positions as of 30 June 2026, before the Cognition investment. It gives net assets of $681.8 million.
Holding (30 June 2026)
Value
Share of net assets
Government money market fund
$220.1M
32.3%
Databricks (two preferred series)
$86.6M
12.7%
OpenAI (Class A common)
$75.0M
11.0%
Mercor (Series C preferred)
$53.4M
7.8%
Revolut (ordinary shares)
$49.8M
7.3%
Ramp (common and preferred)
$33.3M
4.9%
Airwallex (Series G preferred)
$32.1M
4.7%
Stripe (Class B common)
$29.5M
4.3%
Boom Technology (Series B-1 preferred)
$27.0M
4.0%
Canva (Class A common)
$25.0M
3.7%
Oura (Series E preferred)
$24.8M
3.6%
ElevenLabs (Series D-1 preferred)
$20.0M
2.9%
SpaceX (Class A common)
$8.5M
1.3%
Source: Robinhood Ventures Fund I, SEC Form N-PORT, filed 21 August 2026, report date 30 June 2026. Values rounded; the Databricks and Ramp rows each add the two lines the filing lists for that company (our arithmetic). Cognition is not in this filing, which predates the investment.
By our arithmetic, approximately $10 million is about 1.5% of the $681.8 million of net assets the fund reported for 30 June 2026. The fund’s net assets have changed since that date, so this is a reference point, not its current weight.
Connecting the Coverage
Our Devin Oncall piece covered Cognition’s launch of a Devin version that investigates production alerts, on 15 October 2026. Our SpaceX lockup piece covered up to 1.3 billion SpaceX shares becoming eligible for sale under its prospectus lock-up terms; the 30 June filing lists SpaceX Class A common stock among RVI’s holdings. What’s new: RVI has disclosed a stake in Cognition, its second AI coding bet after OpenAI, according to Fortune.
The Structural Read
As we read it, the size is small next to the fund’s other AI positions: approximately $10 million against $75.0 million in OpenAI and $53.4 million in Mercor on 30 June 2026, according to its N-PORT filing.
As we read it, the access is the product: the release says RVI has no accreditation requirements and no investment minimums, which is how a retail buyer gets exposure to a round Fortune puts at a $48 billion valuation.
As we read it, the revenue figures move fast: Fortune cites almost $900 million of annualized run rate in September, and the release says Cognition recently crossed $1B.
Sarah Pinto, President of Robinhood Ventures Fund I, release of 23 October 2026
“Cognition is one of the defining companies of the AI-driven software era, and it represents the type of company retail investors should have access to through RVI”
Three Implications
FOR RETAIL INVESTORS The release describes RVI as a closed-end fund that provides exposure to a concentrated portfolio of primarily private companies, with additional companies expected to be added over time.
FOR COGNITION Fortune reports Robinhood joins backers including Andreessen Horowitz, Accel and Founders Fund in the Series E.
FOR AI CODING RIVALS Fortune lists OpenAI’s Codex, Anthropic’s Claude Code, GitHub Copilot and Cognition’s Devin as competing for developers, and says Robinhood’s venture arm now has money riding on two of the companies behind them.
The framework says “Value capture migrates up from the model to the harness”.
As we read it, RVI’s two AI coding positions sit on both sides of that line: OpenAI builds models and the Codex harness, while Cognition builds Devin, a harness on top of models. The framework was published in July 2026 and does not discuss Robinhood or this investment.
What Is Not Established
The release does not state the price per share or the round, and the round details here come from Fortune. Cognition’s revenue figures are the company’s own, as relayed by Robinhood and Fortune, and were not independently verified. The holdings table reflects 30 June 2026, the latest holdings report we read, and not the fund’s current portfolio. We did not contact Robinhood or Cognition.
Business Engineer Framework
The Agentic Harness War
A Business Engineer map of how coding and work agents compete on the surface, not only the model.
Robinhood Ventures Fund I says it has closed approximately $10 million of investments in Cognition, which Fortune reports was part of a Series E round at a $48 billion valuation. On 30 June 2026 its two largest company positions were Databricks, counting both share series, and OpenAI, according to its SEC filing.
A note on sourcing. This piece is based on Robinhood’s 23 October 2026 release, read in full, the opening of Fortune’s 23 October 2026 report (the rest of the article was not used), and Robinhood Ventures Fund I’s SEC Form N-PORT for 30 June 2026, read from EDGAR. Revenue figures are Cognition’s own. We did not contact Robinhood or Cognition.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
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