The popular U.S.-based crypto-friendly and commission-free investing company Robinhood successfully closed a $280 million Series F funding at an $8.3 billion valuation. The firm promised expansion and platform developments following the round led by the large American VC company Sequoia Capital.
According to reports from earlier this Robinhood suffered numerous outages during the March market turmoil. The company said that it’s frantic trading and increased new account sign-ups that caused the technical problems.
Shortly after, the firm announced plans to raise over $250m in another round to focus on improving the stability of its service and the overall customer experience.
Therefore, the Series F funding for $280m from yesterday was rather unsurprising. Existing investor Sequoia Capital led the round, while other investors included Ribbit Capital, Unusual Ventures, 9Yards Capital, and NEA.
The announcement also confirmed the intentions to scale the platform, build new products, and accelerate the build-out of the operations. This includes hiring more employees across all offices.
With the current economic uncertainty prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the statement said: “We are humbled that people are turning to Robinhood to participate in the markets and build their financial future.”
“Robinhood has made the financial markets accessible to the masses, and in turn, revolutionized the decades-old brokerage industry. We are excited to further our relationship with Robinhood, which we believe is at the beginning of its opportunity.” – commented Andrew Reed, a partner at Sequoia.
Launched in 2013, the financial service firm was among the pioneers in the industry to remove trading fees from its platforms. This included the cryptocurrency trading platform Robinhood Crypto, which came in January 2018.
At the time, Robinhood said, “we believe that cryptocurrencies have the potential to fundamentally reorganize the way money works from the ground up.” Trading started with a few digital assets, but in the two years after, the platform added over a dozen of the most popular digital assets. Users can now trade with Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, Zcash, Dash, Monero, and more.
“We’re planning to operate this business on a break-even basis, and we don’t plan to profit from it for the foreseeable future. The value of Robinhood Crypto is in growing our customer base and better serving our existing customers.” – previously said co-founder Vlad Tenev.