Stock trading and investment platform Robinhood Markets has reached out to financial institutions for positions in an initial public offering (IPO), Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources.
Robinhood Markets is looking to go public in Q1 of next year at the earliest, Bloomberg reported, citing the unnamed sources, who noted that the plans are not set in stone and the company could opt to not to seek a public offering.
Robinhood, which was started by two alumni of Stanford University, says on its website, according to Bloomberg, that it is “on a mission to democratize finance for all.”
The company has 13 million accounts on its infrastructure that enables trading in digital currencies, gold, options, funds and stocks. A public offering would come after a large increase in volume on the platform.
In October, Robinhood Co-Founder and Co-CEO Vlad Tenev told CNBC that Robinhood signed a record 3 million users in the year’s first four months and was seeing that its younger customer base is risk-averse and smart.
Tenev told a CNBC host that usual Robinhood customers “... see volatility and market downturns as buying opportunities” as they understand that they are “just starting out on their investing journey.”
The company’s younger users, who are adept with technology, have been particularly active during COVID-19, even investing their stimulus funds.
Tenev said he saw infusions go into accounts that were “equal to or multiples of the stimulus checks” from the CARES Act.
In September, news surfaced that Robinhood Markets Inc. had expanded the size of its latest investment round to $660 million.
The new fundraising was an outcropping of the Series G round unveiled in the summer for the company.
“We've raised an additional $460 million in subsequent closings to our Series G to support our core product and customer experience and new offerings like cash management and recurring investments,” a representative for the firm indicated, as per a Fox Business report at the time.
Investors providing the new funding included 9Yards Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia.
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