Robinhood Markets Inc, referenced informally as Robinhood, is a U.S.-based financial services company headquartered in Menlo Park, California.^[1][2] The company offers the Robinhood smartphone mobile app, which allows individuals to invest in public companies and exchange-traded funds listed on U.S. stock exchanges without paying a commission.^[3] The firm is a FINRA-approved broker-dealer,^[1] registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and is a member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation.^[4] The company's main source of revenue comes from interest earned on customers' cash balances and margin lending.^[5][6] Prior to 2019, the company's primary source of revenue was from payment for order flow. However, in a 2018 statement the company announced it was ending this form of revenue generation by developing its own in-house clearing agency.^[7] As of its latest funding round in May 2018, the company was valued at $5.6 billion,^[8] but in May 2019, reports from Bloomberg and other outlets publicized Robinhood’s pursuit of an additional $200 million in funding, which could value the company in the $7 billion to $10 billion range.^[9]

In September 2018, the company's co-founders announced plans to take the company public in 2019.^[10][11]

The app has gone under scrutiny for establishing a checking account that offers high interest rates as it is not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.^[12][13]

Robinhood operates a website and mobile apps for iPhone,^[14] Apple Watch,^[15] and Android.^[16] The company has no storefront offices and operates entirely online.

The firm was founded by Vladimir Tenev and Baiju Bhatt who had previously built high-frequency trading platforms for financial institutions in New York City.^[4][17]

In December 2013 Robinhood launched out of stealth on the crowdsourced technology news website Hacker News, leading to articles about the company in TechCrunch, PandoDaily, VentureBeat, TheStreet and others.^{[3][17][18][19]} Initially the firm had a waiting list, and in under 30 days there were 100,000 signups.^[20] In mid-to-late February 2014, co-founders Baiju Bhatt and Vladimir Tenev were on CNBC and Bloomberg TV.^[21]

By September 2014, the waiting list had reached 500,000 people.^[22] In March 2015, the company announced those still on the waitlist could create accounts and any U.S. residents, 18 and older, could apply for an account.^[23]

As of January 2015, 80% of the firm's customers belonged to the demographic "millennials" (people between the ages 18 and 29) and the average customer age was 26.^[24] Fifty percent of users who have made a trade use the app daily and 90% come back to the app weekly.^[25]

As of February 2017, the company had executed over $30 billion in trades.^[5] In April 2017, Robinhood raised $110 million at a $1.3 billion valuation led by Yuri Milner from DST Global,^[26] and Greenoaks Capital and Thrive Capital.^[27]

In August 2017, the company began offering free stocks in exchange for referring new users.^[28]

On January 25, 2018, the company announced a waitlist for commission-free cryptocurrency trading.^[29][30][31] As of 9:00PM on January 25, 2018 the waitlist for enabling the feature grew to more than 1,250,000.^[32] That month, Robinhood began offering commission-free trading of Bitcoin and Ethereum to users in California, Massachusetts, Missouri, and Montana.^[33] In May 2018, Robinhood expanded its Crypto trading platform to Wisconsin and New Mexico.^[34]

By February 2018, Robinhood had 3 million user accounts, around the same number as the online broker E-Trade.^[35] On May 10, 2018, closed a $363 million Series D financing round led by DST Global.^[8] As of May 2018, Robinhood had raised a total of $539 million in venture capital funding, with the last valuation at $5.6 billion, up from their previous evaluation of $1.3 billion.^[8]

In June 2018, it was reported that the company was in talks to obtain a US banking license, with a spokesperson from the company claiming the company was in "constructive" talks with the U.S. OCC.^[37] In December Robinhood announced checking and savings accounts, with debit cards in partnership with Ohio-based Sutton Bank, to be available in early 2019.^[38] Robinhood initially claimed the accounts would be SIPC insured, which the SIPC denied.^[39] The products were rebranded as "cash management" the next day.^[40] In January 2019 the waitlist and sign up page were removed from the app.^[41] It plans to relaunch the account later in 2019.^[42]

A Wall Street Journal article found that Robinhood "appears to be taking more cash for orders than rivals," by up to a 60-to-1 ratio, according to its regulatory filings.^[43]

Bloomberg News reported in October 2018 that Robinhood receives almost half of its revenue from payment for order flow.^[44] The company later confirmed this on its corporate website when asked by CNBC.^[45]

In July 2019, Robinhood admitted to storing customer passwords in cleartext and in readable form across their internal systems, according to emails it sent to affected customers.

Robinhood declined to say how many customers were affected by the error and claims that it did not find any evidence of abuse.^[46]