This $10 Tech Fund Quietly Matched Wall Street's Returns Without a Trading Account

Most people assume that participating in the AI boom means opening a brokerage account, watching prices swing every day, and deciding when to buy or sell.

In practice, that's how a lot of investors end up doing nothing at all — or buying at the wrong time.

What's unusual about the current market is that there's now a way to get exposure to private, venture-style tech investments without trading stocks, picking startups, or even opening a traditional brokerage account.

And in its short history, that approach has produced returns that roughly line up with public U.S. equities, albeit with very different risks.

That vehicle is the Fundrise Innovation Fund, a product that sits somewhere between venture capital and a mutual fund, designed specifically for small, long-term investors.

What This "$10 Tech Fund" Actually Is

Despite the nickname, this isn't an ETF and it doesn't trade like a stock.

The Innovation Fund is a closed-end, non-diversified tender-offer fund regulated under the Investment Company Act of 1940.

Instead of holding public equities, it allocates capital to a portfolio of private technology companies, with a heavy emphasis on artificial intelligence, software, and modern data infrastructure.

Minimums start around $10, which is the real headline feature. Traditional venture funds typically require six-figure commitments and accredited-investor status. This structure exists specifically to lower that barrier.

The tradeoff is liquidity. Shares don't trade on an exchange. Investors buy directly from the fund and can only exit during periodic tender offers, which are offered at the fund's discretion.

In other words, this behaves much more like a long-term private investment than something you can click in and out of.

What's Inside the Portfolio

The reason the fund gets attention is the names it's associated with.

Fundrise highlights exposure to a roster of private companies that includes OpenAI, Anthropic, Databricks, Canva, Anduril, ServiceTitan, Ramp, dbt Labs, and other AI, fintech, and developer-focused businesses.

These are not early-stage experiments; many are large, well-capitalized companies that sit at the center of current AI and software infrastructure trends.

That said, the fund is explicit about one important point: owning shares of the Innovation Fund is not the same as owning stock in any single company.

Performance depends on the portfolio as a whole, not on whether one headline name succeeds or fails.

How Returns Have Looked So Far

The claim that this fund has "matched Wall Street" isn't a promise. It's an observation based on early data, and it depends heavily on how and when returns are measured.

According to Fundrise's own reporting, the Innovation Fund has posted cumulative returns in the low-to-mid double digits since inception, with net asset value rising meaningfully over its early life.

Some analyses show annualized performance roughly in line with broad U.S. equity indexes over the same period, while others show more modest results depending on valuation timing.

That range is a reminder of how private assets work. Valuations are updated periodically, not continuously, and returns can look very different depending on the snapshot you take.

The key takeaway is not that the fund has outperformed public markets, but that it has kept pace with them so far, without public trading, daily volatility, or investor intervention.

The Real Tradeoff

It's easy to hear "$10" and "Wall Street-like returns" and assume there's some kind of shortcut here. There isn't.

What investors are giving up is liquidity.

There's no guaranteed exit, no real-time pricing, and no ability to respond quickly if sentiment changes. If the fund's underlying companies are revalued downward, those changes can show up all at once rather than gradually.

There's also concentration risk. The fund is deliberately focused on technology and AI-related businesses. If that sector underperforms or enthusiasm fades, returns can diverge sharply from diversified stock indexes.

Fundrise is clear in its disclosures: this is appropriate only for investors who can tolerate risk, don't need near-term access to their capital, and are comfortable with the possibility of loss.

Who This Actually Makes Sense For

Stepping back, the Innovation Fund isn't a replacement for index funds, savings accounts, or retirement plans.

It makes the most sense as a satellite holding, a small allocation for investors who already have their basics covered and want exposure to private technology without trying to pick individual startups or qualify for traditional venture funds.

The appeal isn't that it's exciting. It's that it's boring in a useful way. You don't trade it. You don't watch it every day. You don't need a thesis on which AI company wins.

You're making a long-term bet that a basket of private software and AI businesses will continue to matter, and you're willing to accept illiquidity in exchange. For some investors, that tradeoff is worth considering. For others, it won't be.

The important part is understanding what you're actually buying, and what you're giving up, before the $10 minimum makes it feel smaller than it really is.

• Learn More About Fundrise’s Innovation Fund