Robinhood

Robinhood offers US citizens and permanent residents an online platform for commission-free, real-time trading of stocks, ETFs, options, gold, and cryptocurrency, with no minimum account balances or inactivity fees. The platform also allows users to invest in fractional shares. Users can invest in over 5,000 US equities and ETFs, as well as over 650 global stocks through American Depositary Receipts (ADRs). Further, its smart order router incentivizes market makers to compete for order flow based on the amount of price improvement obtained.

The platform’s monetization strategies include rebates from market makers and trading venues on orders placed by users; lending stocks purchased on margin; and a range of smaller revenue streams, including regulatory trading fees and proxy service revenue. Its cash management services generate revenue through interchange fees on transactions made through its debit cards and fees from program banks for sweeping funds into them. Further, Robinhood Gold users pay a monthly fee of USD 5 for trading gold through the service, as well as the annual interest of 2.5% on margin amounts over USD 1,000. 

In January 2022, Robinhood launched a beta version of its crypto wallets for 1,000 users on its waitlist and planned to extend it to 10,000 users by March 2022. The company intended to use its alpha and beta versions to test its crypto wallet functionalities and improve its final product.

In June 2023, Robinhood announced plans to acquire X1 Inc , a platform that offers no-fee credit cards with rewards, for USD 95.0 million cash settlement. Through this acquisition, the company intended to broaden its product offerings by providing a no-fee credit card that includes no annual fees, late fees, or foreign transaction fees. Robinhood planned to acquire Ziglo in April 2022, a London-based cryptocurrency trading platform in the UK. The company will tap into Ziglo’s UK Financial Conduct Authority-approved cryptocurrency, providing UK customers access to 11 cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ether, and Litecoin. Robinhood acquired investor relations platform Say Technologies in a USD 140 million cash deal in August 2021. Through this acquisition, it planned to introduce new products to improve shareholder access while continuing to provide Say’s proxy voting service and Q&A platform.

Key customers and partnerships

As of December 2022, Robinhood had around 11.4 million monthly active users and assets under custody close to USD 62.0 billion.

Robinhood also offers cash management services, through which it offers a Mastercard debit card in partnership with Sutton Bank. Users also earn 0.30% annual percentage yield (APY) on their uninvested cash through Robinhood’s partnerships with seven program banks, including Goldman Sachs, HSBC, and Wells Fargo. Uninvested cash that is not swept into program banks is deposited into interest-bearing accounts. 

In September 2022, Robinhood announced a partnership with Polygon , a layer-2 scaling solution based on Ethereum’s blockchain. Through this partnership, Robinhood launched the beta version  of its non-custodial crypto wallet for 10,000 users on its waitlist.   

Funding and financials

Robinhood was listed on the NASDAQ under the trading symbol “HOOD” in July 2021 and raised close to USD 2 billion at a valuation of USD 32 billion. 

For the year ended 2022 , Robinhood’s revenue declined 25.2% YoY to reach close to USD 1.4 billion, white adjusted EBITDA margin decreased to -6.9% in 2022 from 1.8% in 2021.