New Robinhood Raise Gives It an $8.2B Valuation

A new secondary raise has been launched for popular stock and cryptocurrency trading platform Robinhood, valuing the company at $8.2 billion.

Austin, Texas-based crowdfunding platform Microventures is offering investors a stake in Robinhood in a secondary fundraising round. It gives the company a valuation of $8.2 billion. It is not a primary offering from Robinhood.

Its July 2019 Series E raise, which included investments from DST Global, Ribbit Capital, NEA, Sequoia, and Thrive Capital, garnered the commission-free trading app $323 million — crypto’s biggest for the year. Its valuation at the time was $7.6 billion.

The company was rumored to be considering going public last year, but this raise would indicate its expansion plans have some way to play out before it lists publicly. 

The offering reveals FINRA’s fining of the company on Dec. 19th for $1.25 million for violations related to the firm’s best execution and order routing practices during October 2016 to November 2017. 

It also suffered some recent technical problems in November, allowing some users to take advantage of a flaw that allowed them to make highly leveraged and insufficiently backed trades. 

Those hiccups have not stopped the platform from growing. Early in December it crossed the ten million user mark. The app is noted for its design simplicity and ease-of-use. As a trading app that appealed to average investors, its move into crypto in February 2018 was seen as a significant step for bringing cryptocurrencies mainstream.

UPDATE: This story has been amended to reflect the fact that the funding round is a secondary round, and not a primary offering from Robinhood.

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