FNG has learned that popular US app-based neobroker Robinhood (NASDAQ:HOOD) is planning to launch in the UK market in the coming months.
Robinhood is currently posting job listings for several key positions based in London on platforms such as LinkedIn (see above), in areas including regulatory and operations. The company is apparently also engaging in a concerted search for a UK chief executive to run the business.
The move comes just days after Robinhood rival Public.com launched in the UK.
This actually marks a return of sorts for Robinhood to the UK. In 2019 the company had planned for the UK to become Robinhood’s first beachhead outside the US, and set up Robinhood U.K. Ltd, which received FCA authorization in August 2019. However COVID-19 happened, and the company decided to deal with issues that had cropped up in its US home market operation, eventually deciding to cancel the UK launch in mid 2020.
Robinhood UK currently has just one listed Director, a Netherlands based executive named Bert van Delft, who has been with Robinhood since before its planned initial UK launch in 2019. He was previously Director Operations at Dutch banking platform provider Ohpen, and worked for 10 years at Netherlands based bank BinckBank, now owned by Saxo Bank.
Robinhood went public in mid 2021 at a share price of $38 which soon-after soared to above $70. However a combination of weak results and waning crypto (and meme stock) madness hit Robinhood stock hard, along with questions about the way Robinhood made money through payment-for-order-flow (PFOF) arrangements. Robinhood shares have traded in a fairly tight range around $10-12 for most of the past two and a half years.
However things have begun to tick up at Robinhood lately. In Q1 2023 the company reported Revenues which beat street expectations, and the broker saw its first increase in monthly active users in two years. The company’s shares are up more than 25% since May, now sitting at $12.49.
Robinhood share price, IPO to present. Source: Google Finance.
