Robinhood

Robinhood is a financial services company based in Menlo Park, California. Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt founded it in 2013. The app became known for offering stock trades with no commission, which pushed larger brokers to drop their own fees.

Users trade stocks, options, exchange-traded funds and cryptocurrency from a phone. The app uses a simple design with real-time prices and fractional shares. Robinhood Gold, a paid tier, adds margin lending, research data and a higher interest rate on cash. Retirement accounts and a credit card are also offered.

The company drew attention in January 2021 when it limited purchases of GameStop shares during a price surge. It has paid fines to regulators for matters including order routing and outages. Robinhood went public in 2021, and it joined the S&P 500 index in 2025. It has expanded into Europe with stock tokens. Tenev is chief executive. The company has acquired the crypto exchange Bitstamp and the trading platform TradePMR. Retail investors are its main customers, and it has added a feature that gives access to some initial public offerings.