Robinhood, at the heart of retail trading frenzy, files for own IPO

(Reuters) -Robinhood Marketplaces Inc, the online brokerage at the heart of the historic retail investing frenzy that gripped Wall Avenue this yr, has confidentially submitted strategies to regulators for a U.S. initial general public offering, the corporation disclosed on Tuesday.

The go to thrust ahead with a inventory marketplace flotation will come in the middle of a historic increase in U.S. money markets, fueled mainly by dealmaking by so-referred to as particular goal acquisition firms.

Businesses have elevated nicely around $100 billion by means of preliminary community choices (IPOs) in the first a few months of the calendar year and are poised to overtake 2020’s record haul of $167 billion, information from Refinitiv and Dealogic showed. The volume lifted includes blank-check IPOs.

Reuters documented in December that Robinhood experienced picked Goldman Sachs Team Inc to guide preparations for a inventory sector flotation.

The enterprise is nonetheless to figure out the variety of shares to be available and the price assortment, it mentioned bit.ly/3f34vbk in a blog put up.

Robinhood experienced deemed going general public by way of a immediate listing in the weeks top up to the filing, men and women familiar with the issue claimed.

In a immediate listing, a enterprise does not provide any shares in advance of its market place debut, as is the situation with IPOs.

Menlo Park, California-based mostly Robinhood was established in 2013 by Stanford University roommates Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt. The company’s platform enables end users to make unlimited commission-totally free trades in shares, trade-traded funds, possibilities and cryptocurrencies.

The platform’s easy-to-use interface has built it a go-to for young traders trading from household during coronavirus-induced limitations and its acceptance soared through the retail trading frenzy.

The company, nevertheless, faced criticism soon after it was forced to curb trading in sure shares for the duration of the social-media fueled trading frenzy due to a 10-fold rise in deposit needs at its clearinghouse.

It was pressured to raise a whopping $3.4 billion in unexpected emergency cash immediately after its finances had been strained owing to the huge bounce in retail buying and selling.

The funding rounds have been led by Ribbit Money and incorporated current buyers ICONIQ, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Cash, Index Ventures and New Business Associates. The latest financing valued Robinhood at around $30 billion, in accordance to persons familiar with make a difference.

Robinhood is at this time being probed by U.S. regulators in excess of its non permanent buying and selling curbs on the so-termed “meme stocks”. The corporation has set aside $26.6 million for a possible settlement all over trading outages in March 2020, as effectively as its possibilities buying and selling policies.