May 10, 2018

Robinhood raises $363 million to move beyond no-fee trading

Source: Giphy

Robinhood, the no-fee investment app, has raised $363 million in Series D funding at a $5.6 billion post-money valuation.

Why it's a big deal: Because Robinhood doesn't just want to help millennials save money on stock, crypto and options trades. It wants to become a full-fledged consumer finance company, and this is enough cash to help it pursue that goal.

DST Group led, and was joined by Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins, CapitalG and return backers like NEA and Thrive Capital. It has now raised a total of $539 million.

DST founder Yuri Milner was included on a U.S. Treasury Department list of Russian oligarchs, but he wasn't among those subsequently sanctioned. Robinhood co-CEO Baiju Bhatt says his company isn't concerned about possible regulatory implications of taking DST's money.

Bottom line: The Silicon Valley company says it now has more than four million brokerage accounts, which is a larger user base than E*Trade (3.7m). It also claims to have transacted over $150 billion in trades.

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Coronavirus crisis tests Trump’s love for cheap oil

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