california key people baiju bhatt co founder vladimir tenev co founder nate rodland coo industry technology website www.robinhood.com launched april 18 2013 in palo alto california robinhood markets inc. is a u.s. based financial services company founded in 2013 and headquartered in palo alto california . 1 the robinhood smartphone app allows individuals to invest in publicly traded companies and exchange traded funds listed on u.s. exchanges without paying a commission . 2 3 contents 1 history 2 products 3 product launch 4 funding 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit the firm was founded by vladimir tenev and baiju bhatt 4 who had previously built high frequency trading platforms for financial institutions in new york city . 4 5 tenev and bhatt realized that high frequency traders and electronic trading firms pay effectively nothing to place trades on the market . this inspired tenev and bhatt to bring existing technology to the retail brokerage market with robinhood a commission free stock brokerage . 6 as of march 2016 it has nearly one million customers . 7 products edit robinhood is a mobile first stock brokerage for iphone 8 apple watch 9 and android 10 allowing customers to buy and sell stocks on u.s. exchanges with zero commissions . as of may 2015 the firm is the only major brokerage to offer 0 trading commissions for u.s. listed stocks as well as 0 account minimums . 11 the firm is a finra approved broker dealer 1 registered with the u.s. securities and exchange commission and is a member of the securities investor protection corporation sipc . 12 product launch edit robinhood launched out of stealth on the crowdsourced technology news website hacker news leading to articles about the company in techcrunch pandodaily venturebeat thestreet and others . 2 5 13 14 initially the firm had a waiting list and in under 30 days there were 100 000 signups . 15 in mid to late february of 2014 co founders baiju bhatt and vladimir tenev were on cnbc and bloomberg tv . 16 17 by september 2014 the waiting list had reached 500 000 people . 18 in march 2015 the company announced those still on the waitlist could create accounts and any u.s. residents 18 and older could apply for an account . 19 eighty percent of the firm s current customers belong to the demographic millennials people between the ages 18 and 29 and the current average customer age is 26 . 20 fifty percent of users who have made a trade use the app daily and 90 percent come back to the app weekly . 21 funding edit robinhood has raised a total of 66 million in venture capital funding . it received 3 million in seed capital from google ventures andreessen horowitz index ventures it ventures social leverage and elefund with several angels . 22 it announced it had raised an additional 13 million in series a funding in september 2014 . 23 jan hammer of index ventures led the round and joined the robinhood board . 23 also joining the round were ribbit capital ; howard lindzon co founder of stocktwits and general partner at social leverage ; aaron levie founder of box ; dave morin founder of path ; jared leto ; snoop dogg ; and nasir jones of queensbridge venture partners . 23 it raised an additional 50 million in series b funding in may 2015 led by new enterprise associates nea . existing investors index ventures ribbit capital and social leverage joined the round along with new investor vaizra investments . as part of the financing nea general partner kittu kolluri joined the board of directors . 24 see also edit comparison of online brokerages references edit a b gannes liz 23 september 2014 . with 13 million robinhood aims to share the stock trade wealth . re code . re code . retrieved 26 september 2014 . a b constine josh 2013 12 18 . robinhood app will offer zero commission stock trades thanks to 3m seed from index and a16z . techcrunch.com . retrieved 2014 02 27 . robinhood frequently asked questions . robinhood.com . retrieved 2013 06 27 . a b forget 10 trades meet robinhood new brokerage targets millennials with little cash . forbes . 2014 02 26 . retrieved 2014 04 07 . a b robinhood gets 3m to take from wall st. and give to main st. with its mobile first zero commission brokerage . pandodaily.com . 2013 12 28 . retrieved 2014 02 14 . robinhood a zero commission stock brokerage . bloomberg . 2014 02 20 . retrieved 2014 04 07 . discount brokerages free trade share trading joins the list of ostensibly free online services . the economist . 12 march 2016 . retrieved 12 march 2016 . stock trading for the touch id era has finally arrived . wired . 11 december 2014 . steven tweedie 24 april 2015 . best new apple watch apps i should download first business insider . business insider . robinhood at a play store near you . under the hood . zero fee stock trading app robinhood nabs 50m from nea to go global . techcrunch . aol . 7 may 2015 . touryalai halah 26 february 2014 . forget 10 trades meet robinhood new brokerage targets millennials with little cash . forbes . forbes . retrieved 26 september 2014 . robinhood opens investing doors to wall street s hood . thestreet.com . 2013 12 28 . retrieved 2014 02 14 . robinhood s pitch to millennials free stock trading . venturebeat.com . 2013 12 28 . retrieved 2014 02 14 . robinhood on twitter . twitter . robinhood a new app offers free stock trades . cnbc.com . 2014 02 27 . retrieved 2014 02 14 . robinhood a zero commission stock brokerage . bloombergtv . 2014 02 20 . retrieved 2014 02 14 . new app wants to make trading stocks as easy as posting selfies . wired . 23 september 2014 . daniel roberts 12 march 2015 . robinhood an investing app is luring stock market newbies fortune . fortune . young poor and looking to invest robinhood is the app for that . retrieved 4 february 2015 . robinhood raises 13m to democratize stock market with zero commission trading app . techcrunch . aol . 23 september 2014 . robinhood . a b c constine josh 23 september 2014 . robinhood raises 13m to democratize stock market with zero commission trading app . techcrunch.com . techcrunch . retrieved 26 september 2014 . onward . under the hood . external links edit official website vladimir tenev interview with jason calacanis at the launch festival robinhood on crunchbase retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title robinhood markets & oldid 732555746 categories 2013 establishments in californiacompanies established in 2013financial services companies of the united statesonline brokeragesredwood city californiatechnology companies of the united states navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 1 august 2016 at 18 56 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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