Finance · Profile from Finance Research Companion
Robinhood Markets, Inc.
The Menlo Park brokerage app, founded in 2013 by Stanford roommates Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt, that launched commission-free stock trading on phones in 2015, paid for it by selling customer orders to wholesale market makers such as Citadel Securities (payment for order flow, or PFOF), and so forced the whole US brokerage industry to cut commissions to zero in October 2019. It then became the symbol of the 2020–21 retail-trading mania: record fines for outages and misleading customers, the death of a 20-year-old customer in June 2020 that drew national attention to its options business, the January 2021 GameStop buying restrictions forced by a ~$3bn clearing-house deposit call, a congressional hearing, and a July 2021 IPO at $38 that collapsed to under $7 within a year. It came back as a profitable, diversified platform: subscriptions, retirement accounts, crypto (including the Bitstamp exchange), banking and the largest retail prediction-market business in the US. It joined the S&P 500 on 22 September 2025, earned ~$1.9bn on ~$4.5bn of revenue in 2025, and had 28.7m funded customers and ~$396bn of platform assets in September 2026.
At a glance
- Founded
- 2013, Palo Alto, California, by Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt; app launched March 2015
- Headquarters
- Menlo Park, California
- Ownership / structure
- Listed on Nasdaq (HOOD) since 29 July 2021; dual-class shares give the founders voting control (Class B, 10 votes per share); broker-dealers Robinhood Financial LLC (introducing) and Robinhood Securities LLC (self-clearing since 2018); Robinhood Crypto LLC; Bitstamp (since June 2025); Robinhood Derivatives (futures commission merchant); stake in the Rothera prediction-market exchange joint venture with Susquehanna
- Leadership
- Vlad Tenev, co-founder, CEO and chairman; Baiju Bhatt, co-founder (co-CEO until November 2020, then chief creative officer)
- Segment
- Fintech / retail brokerage: equities, options, crypto, futures, event contracts, retirement accounts, subscriptions, credit card and banking
- Scale
- 28.7m funded customers, 30.4m investment accounts, ~$396bn total platform assets, 5.2m Gold subscribers, $22.1bn margin book (Q3 2026, company)
- Profit
- 2025: revenue ~$4.5bn (+52%), net income ~$1.9bn (+33%), net deposits ~$68.1bn. Q3 2026: revenue $1.42bn (+12%), net income $476m (−14%) (company)
- Signature moves (incl. failures)
- Zero-commission app launch (2015); the PFOF model and the $65m SEC case (2016–20); crypto trading (2018–25); outages, the Kearns tragedy and FINRA's record fine (2020–21); GameStop restrictions and the congressional hearing (2021); IPO and the 2022 collapse (2021–23); Gold, retirement and the turn to profit (2022–24); Bitstamp and global crypto (2025–26); prediction markets and Rothera (2024–26); S&P 500 entry and the 2025–26 results
10 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
2015
Zero Commission App Launch
Founding / launch / pricing change
2016
Payment for Order Flow Model
Business model / regulatory settlement
2018
Crypto Trading Launch
Launch / regulatory
2020
Outages Options and FINRA Record Fine
Failure / regulatory settlement
2021
GameStop Restrictions and Congressional Hearing
Crisis / emergency funding
2021
Nasdaq IPO and 2022 Collapse
IPO / restructuring
2022
Gold Retirement and Turn to Profit
Diversification / pivot
2025
Bitstamp and Global Crypto Expansion
Acquisition / international expansion
2025
Prediction Markets and Rothera Exchange
Launch / joint venture / acquisition
2025
S and P 500 Entry and 2026 Results
Milestone / regulatory settlement / results