US-based online trading platform Robinhood has secured $363m in a series D round featuring internet and technology group Alphabet’s CapitalG unit that valued it at $5.6bn, it revealed yesterday.
Investment firm DST Global led the round, which included Iconiq Capital, Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers and existing investors including New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Thrive Capital.
Although not mentioned in the statement Robinhood released announcing the news yesterday, Arrive, the startup funding and services arm of music management agency Roc Nation, invested in the company in February this year, which would likely place it among the participants.
Robinhood operates a secure, commission-free trading platform, generating income through the interest on the capital and securities in its clients’ accounts, and through an optional subscription service called Robinhood Gold that offers expanded trading options.
The company, which has 4 million users, recently expanded its offering by adding commission-free options trading and, in 10 US states, a cryptocurrency trading option.
The round increased Robinhood’s overall funding to $540m altogether, and its valuation is a huge jump from its last round, a $110m series C in April 2017 featuring DST, Thrive Capital, NEA, Greenoaks Capital, Index Ventures and Ribbit Capital that valued it at $1.3bn.
A separate Alphabet unit, GV, is also among the company’s backers, having contributed to a $3m seed round that included Index Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Rothenberg Ventures and assorted angel investors in 2013.
Robinhood’s earlier investors also include Queensbridge Venture Partners, Social Leverage and Vaizra Investments. Robinhood employees including its co-founders divested a total of more than $100m of stock in the series D round, Axios reported today.
– This article was amended on May 11, 2018 to reflect the secondary share sales in the round.