Robinhood a Stock Brokerage Startup That Allows Customers to Buy and Sell Stocks, ETFs, and Cryptocurrencies with Zero Commission

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Full-time headcount: 1,042

Headquarters: Menlo Park, California, USA

Year founded: 2013

Founders: Baiju Bhatt, Vlad Tenev

Robinhood, which bills itself as “investing for everyone,” has sought to democratize stock market investing via its app by making trades affordable and easy to execute. It recently raised $200 million in new funding, making it worth $11.2 billion. It’s now on a hiring spree to keep up with its growth and respond to growing regulatory concerns, bringing hundreds of registered financial service representatives in Southlake, Texas, and Tempe, Arizona.

Robinhood competes in the nascent but fast-growing fintech industry. Traditional and new players have invested billions of dollars in moving investing, banking, money management, and other financial services to digital platforms. In 2013, Robinhood announced its intention to make zero-commission trading the centerpiece of its business offering. It would achieve this by keeping operational and administrative expenses low. By October 2019, much of the brokerage industry had followed suit in offering zero-commission fee structures.