Stock trading app has swelled to 18 million funded accounts, with half representing first-time investors.
Robinhood, the trading app that’s empowered a new generation of investors, revealed in its IPO filing that it lost $1.4 billion in the first three months of the year. The company also said its revenue soared 309% during the same period as investors flocked to its service. Robinhood filed its prospectus with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday as it prepares to sell stock to the public for the first time, where it will trade under the symbol HOOD. The IPO will give investors a chance to own part of a fast-growing company that has rocked the traditionally staid brokerage business — and from lawmakers and consumer advocates. Since its launch in 2014, Robinhood’s popularity has forced rivals to get rid of commissions and to offer apps that make trading easy and maybe even fun. But as it’s drawn in 18 million funded accounts, with more than half its customers first-time investors, the company has also agreed to pay more than $130 million in recent years to settle accusations by regulators, with the most On Thursday, Robinhood said its plans go far beyond stock trading. «As we look to the future, we want to help Robinhood customers manage all aspects of their financial lives in one place,» the company said in the filing. «We envision them moving seamlessly between investing, saving and spending all on the Robinhood platform.» Despite its losses and controversy, Robinhood offers something that’s always in great demand on Wall Street: explosive growth. Robinhood’s revenue rocketed to $522.2 million in the first three months of the year, up from $127.6 million a year earlier. It lost $1.4 billion during the quarter, but that was almost entirely to account for a $1.5 billion change in the value of liabilities it has related to debt and warrants that it issued in February.
