Robinhood Markets, Inc. (often referred to as Robinhood) is an American financial services and financial-technology company best known for its commission‑free retail trading platform.ebsco+2
Basic company profile
- Public company headquartered in Menlo Park, California, in Silicon Valley.wikipedia+2
- Founded in April 2013 by Vladimir Tenev and Baiju Bhatt, who previously built trading infrastructure for financial institutions.quartr+3
- The company’s name and branding reflect a mission of “democratizing” access to financial markets for everyday investors, not just the wealthy.robinhood+4
Main products and services
- Operates a mobile‑first and web trading platform for stocks, exchange‑traded funds (ETFs), options, and certain other derivatives such as index options and futures.wikipedia+3
- Offers cryptocurrency trading and crypto wallets, along with features like fractional shares, margin/Gold subscription, and various cash and banking‑style services (e.g., debit/credit products via partner banks).ebsco+3
- Provides news and educational content under the Sherwood.News brand to support retail investors’ information needs.wikipedia+1
Business model and revenue
- Popularized zero‑commission trading in the U.S. retail market, pushing many incumbents to drop commissions as well.ark-invest+2
- Generates a significant share of revenue from “payment for order flow” (PFOF), in which market makers pay Robinhood for routing customer orders, as well as from securities lending, subscription (Robinhood Gold), and transaction‑based crypto and options income.investopedia+2
- Has grown to tens of millions of funded customer accounts and hundreds of billions of dollars in assets under custody globally.quartr+1
Customers and markets
- Core user base is relatively young; the platform has heavily targeted millennials and newer retail investors through its interface and branding.wikipedia+4
- Primary market is the United States, with expansion into the United Kingdom and limited crypto‑only access in parts of the European Union.robinhood+2
Position and impact
- Widely seen as a key driver of the retail trading boom of the late 2010s and early 2020s, especially around meme‑stock episodes like GameStop.ark-invest+3
- Praised for broadening access to investing, while also facing regulatory and public scrutiny over issues like PFOF conflicts, trading outages, and risk‑taking by inexperienced users.investopedia+3
- https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/technology/robinhood
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinhood_Markets
- https://robinhood.com/us/en/about-us/
- https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/HOOD/profile/
- https://quartr.com/insights/company-research/robinhood-revolutionizing-retail-investing
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinhood_(company)
- https://www.ark-invest.com/articles/analyst-research/robinhood-first-financial-institution-built-for-internet-generation
- https://robinhood.com
- https://www.investopedia.com/articles/active-trading/020515/how-robinhood-makes-money.asp