Mobile investment app Robinhood is now looking for a chief financial officer as a part of preparation for an initial public offering (IPO), which could help the startup pitch itself as the cheaper youthful alternative to E*Trade and traditional stock brokers.
Robinhood, crypto and stock trading startup, has announed its plans to go public. Currently, the company is looking for a chief financial officer as part of its long-term strategy.
Robinhood, is a U.S.-based financial services company headquartered in Menlo Park, California. The company offers the Robinhood smartphone mobile app, which allows individuals to invest in publicly traded companies and exchange-traded funds listed on U.S. stock exchanges without paying a commission.The company makes money from interest earned on customers’ cash balances and margin lending.
Last year, the company was not popular. But then it raised a $110 million Series C at a $1.3 billion valuation in April 2017. In May of this year, Robinhood raised $363 million in a Series D round funding led by DST Global and Sequoia Capital. In that round, Robinhood was valued at $5.6 billion.
Nowadays, Robinhood is regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and is registered with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) as a broker-dealer.
In June of this year, the company announced it was going to get a license to perform banking services. As was reported by CoinSpeaker, the license would provide Robinhood customers with savings accounts and other traditional banking services. The representatives of Robinhood were leading a dialogue with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, responsible for regulation of all US national banks and federal savings associations.
What is more, Robinhood is constantly improving its services. Recently, Robinhood updated platform’s customer service with a number of analyst tools for better research and trading experience. The update included the chart option ans such discovery tools as analyst ratings, which provides market commentary based on Wall Street analysts, and a tool called ‘People Also Bought,’ which allows users to track what others are purchasing on the Robinhood platform.
Over the past few months, we’ve been working on new features to make Robinhood even better. Introducing candlestick charts, discovery tools, and more. Take a look! https://t.co/5JpGnGnIVb
— Robinhood (@RobinhoodApp) September 4, 2018
Currently, the firm is actively looking for a CFO. Robinhood CEO Baiju Bhatt said:
“Being a public company I think aligns very closely with our mission as well. And it’s definitely on the horizon, not in the immediate term, but that’s something we are thinking about.”
Hiring the CFO could help the startup pitch itself as the cheaper youthful alternative to E*Trade and traditional stock brokers, and give it an efficiency and growth rate. It is a safe bet that the startup now has the firepower and revenue to make a viable Wall Street debut.
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