Office address: 85 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025
Website: robinhood.com
Year established: 2013
Company type: financial services
Employees: 2,300+
Expertise: retail brokerage, stock trading, ETF trading, options trading, cryptocurrency trading, portfolio management, cash management, debit card services, futures trading, financial technology, investment education
Parent company: Robinhood Markets, Inc.
Key people: Vlad Tenev (CEO), Stephanie Guild (chief investment officer), Matt Billings (president), Dan Gallagher (chief legal officer), Steve Quirk (chief brokerage officer), Jason Warnick (CFO), Johann Kerbrat (SVP)
Financing status: corporation
Robinhood provides commission-free trading for stocks, ETFs, options, and cryptocurrencies to more than 26.7 million customers. The company operates from Menlo Park and employs 2,300 people. It is recognized for its user-friendly platform and a customer base that is mostly millennials and Gen Z.
Robinhood started in 2013 when Baiju Bhatt and Vlad Tenev, two Stanford graduates, saw a gap in the market. They noticed that big Wall Street firms traded for almost nothing, while regular people paid high commissions. This inspired them to build a platform that would let anyone invest without paying those fees.
The founders moved back to California and raised money to build their app. They created buzz by setting up a waitlist, and over one million people signed up before the app launched in 2014. Robinhood’s simple design and no-commission trades quickly caught the attention of younger investors.
The company won an Apple Design award in 2015, which helped boost its reputation. By 2019, the company reached a $7.6 billion valuation and had millions of users. Major brokerages soon followed Robinhood’s lead by dropping their own trading fees.
Robinhood added features like fractional shares and early access to cryptocurrency trading. The firm expanded to the UK in 2024 and launched margin trading with new safety measures. In 2025, it introduced Robinhood Social, a platform for users to share trades and follow public figures.
Robinhood offers a range of products designed to make investing simple and accessible for individuals. The platform covers trading, retirement, and educational resources:
Robinhood is also known for its easy-to-use app and website, which make investing simple for all experience levels. The platform provides real-time updates and helpful educational content.
Robinhood states that its mission is to make finance open to everyone, highlighting the coming $124 trillion wealth transfer. The firm describes its culture as fast-paced and focused on ambitious goals. It values these principles:
According to the company, employees are expected to take on challenging work and learn quickly. In return, Robinhood offers these benefits:
Robinhood reports that ESG programs support transparency and long-term impact for its business and customers. In 2025, about 50 percent of new investors identified as first-time users, and 75 percent as millennials or Gen Z. It highlights offsetting 1,634 metric tonnes of Scope 2 emissions and purchasing 6,550 megawatt-hours of Green-e wind energy
Vlad Tenev is the CEO and chair of Robinhood Markets, leading the company and its board. He aims to democratize finance for all and believes tokenization and blockchain technology will transform the industry. Before this, Tenev co-founded two finance firms in New York City. He holds math degrees from Stanford and UCLA and has several FINRA licenses.
The leadership team at Robinhood oversees key areas of the company’s growth and innovation:
Robinhood’s leadership team works to deliver new products and value for today’s investors. They focus on putting customers first and adapting to changing market needs.
In August 2025, Robinhood’s stock was up 440 percent over the previous year as it moved into RIA custody and rolled out new AI features. The company announced a referral program with TradePMR and launched prediction markets for sports, aiming to reach more advisors and investors. These actions support Robinhood’s future growth and strengthen its position with a broad, younger client base.
In launching Robinhood Social, the company aims to connect investors and increase transparency. This new feature lets users share trades, discuss strategies, and follow the moves of public figures in real time. While the rollout was met with some industry caution, Robinhood looks to engage its large, young user base and shape how people interact with investing
The Menlo Park, California-based company announced a new debit card last week, complete with a spare change investing feature, after reaching a settlement with the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation over lax oversight and service outages.
The Vermont Department of Financial Regulation said at least 40 customers in the state complained.
The feature appeared in a beta version of its iPhone app. Code describing the service — dubbed Stock Loan Income Program, or SLIP — was discovered by developer Steve Moser.
The new account will be free; it will include a feature for automatically investing a percentage or standard dollar amount from paychecks, as well an early deposit feature that will let users receive their income up to two days early.
The world’s largest firms are betting that new tools from wealthtech providers, ranging from AI to robotic process automation and blockchain systems, can help slash costs while increasing assets.
Coinbase Global, Gemini Trust and Robinhood Markets are among the companies working to comply with the Treasury Department's 'travel rule.'
The first quarter alone in 2021 netted $6 billion in new wealthtech funding, which accounted for 41% of the total investments raised last year, according to the most recent data from CB Insights.
The London-based fintech received approval to become a licensed broker-dealer in the U.S. in June and is building an investing and savings app to manage all of its clients' finances under one roof.
Acorns plans to pursue traditional public offering.
The victorious lawyer focused on alleged missteps related to liquidity and risk management, rather than conspiracy theory.
While investing in single stocks can expose investors to more volatility, the feature lets customers stay diversified while also allowing them to buy shares of their favorite companies.
Millions of consumers are already creating free financial plans right from their mobile phones, meaning the ability to create customized plans may become commodified.
The ability to roll options was previously available only to Level 3 users, who have access to more trading functionality.
The firm, which counts some of the biggest Wall Street banks as its partners, was valued at more than $7 billion in the round.
Users will be able to send cryptocurrency via digital gift cards, according to code discovered in a beta version of the company's iPhone app.
