Robinhood Markets Inc., the commission-free online brokerage that offers a mobile app to invest in stocks, ETFs and options, announced a $200 million Series G funding, bringing its valuation to $11.2 billion.
The investor is D1 Capital Partners L.P., the two-year-old New York-based global investment firm that deploys capital in public and private markets.
Reuters reported the latest funding round is seen as a step toward an initial public offering (IPO) by the company, which has benefited from a surge in day trading, driven by consumers sheltered in place during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“For seven years, the team at Robinhood has been focused on enabling more access to the markets for more people,” the company said in a statement. “With this funding, we’ll continue to invest in improving our core product and customer experience.”
Robinhood said it is planning to hire “hundreds” of registered financial services representatives this year in Southlake, Texas, and Tempe, Arizona.
“Across all of our locations, we’re adding new team members to help us reduce response times, build more self-service tools, and enhance our informational and educational tools,” Robinhood said.
The latest funding comes one month after the startup added $320 million to a funding round disclosed in May, bringing the total investment to $600 million with a valuation of $8.6 billion.
At the time, Robinhood said the investors behind the round included TSG Consumer Partners, the San Francisco-based private equity company, and IVP, the California investment company. The investors listed by Robinhood as backing the first part of the latest round were Sequoia Capital, NEA, Ribbit Capital, 9Yards Capital and Unusual Ventures.
Earlier this month, Robinhood topped PYMNTS’ latest Provider Ranking of Personal Finance Apps.
