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Robinhood has raised more than $860m in venture capital funding to date.
In May, Robinhood Markets Inc announced plans to raise $200m in funding. Yesterday (22 July), the free stock trading app maker said that it had exceeded this goal, raising a total of $323m.
On the company’s blog, Robinhood said the round was led by DST Global. Ribbit Capital, NEA, Sequoia Capital and Thrive Capital also contributed towards the investment.
Keeping its statement short and sweet, Robinhood said: “We’ll use the funding to keep pursuing our mission of democratising finance for all.”
Over the last year, the California-based company has launched a clearing system entitled Clearing by Robinhood, rolled out premium features under the Robinhood Gold experience, introduced multi-leg options strategies and launched a financial news feature called Robinhood Snacks.
With the $323m Series E financing, the company now has an estimated valuation of $7.6bn.
Progress
Robinhood was founded in 2013 by Vladimir Tenev and Baiju Bhatt. With its latest round of funding included, the company has raised more than $860m in venture capital funding to date.
Although the company’s mission is to “democratise finance for all”, Robinhood has faced criticism in the past for receiving almost half of its revenue from third parties that want to influence how the broker routes client orders.
Bloomberg reported last October that more than 40pc of revenue came from selling customers’ orders to high-frequency trading firms and market makers such as Citadel Securities and Two Sigma Securities.
Last year, Robinhood also planned to launch a new checking service with an advertised interest rate of 3pc, which received backlash over whether and how it would be insured, leading the company to backtrack on its plans.
However, this week’s news shows that investors have not been deterred from backing Robinhood despite these controversies.
