Robinhood, the Silicon Valley-based inventory buying and selling app that was lately valued by traders at $7.6 billion, has obtained regulatory approval within the U.Ok., breaking cowl on its plans to arrange store in London (as reported completely by TechCrunch 7 months in the past).
Specifically, Robinhood International Ltd., a Robinhood subsidiary, has been authorised to function as a dealer (with some restrictions) within the U.Ok. by the Financial Conduct Authority, which regulates U.Ok. monetary providers. This gears Robinhood up for a U.Ok. launch, though the corporate is staying tightlipped on when precisely that can be.
In addition, Robinhood is disclosing that it has appointed Wander Rutgers as President of Robinhood International. He joins from London fintech Plum, the place he headed up the startup’s investing and financial savings product, and previous to that’s stated to have led product, compliance and operations groups at TransferWise.
At Robinhood, Rutgers will lead the U.Ok. enterprise and oversee the corporate’s new London workplace, which has already begun staffing up. Sources informed me in April that Robinhood was busy hiring for a number of U.Ok. positions, together with recruitment, operations, advertising and marketing/PR, buyer assist, compliance and product.
The firm tells me it is usually constructing out a London-based consumer analysis crew so it might probably higher discover product-market match right here. Crudely constructing a localised model of Robinhood clearly gained’t lower it.
Meanwhile, information that Robinhood is ramping its deliberate U.Ok. launch is attention-grabbing within the context of native fintech startups which have launched their very own fee-free buying and selling choices.
First out of the gate was London-based Freetrade, which selected very early on to construct a bona-fide “challenger broker,” together with acquiring the required license from the FCA, moderately than merely partnering with a longtime dealer. The app allows you to put money into shares and ETFs. Trades are “fee-free” in case you are comfortable to your purchase or promote trades to execute on the shut of enterprise every day. If you wish to execute instantly, the startup prices a low £1 per commerce.
And simply final week, Revolut lastly launched its fee-free inventory buying and selling function, albeit tentatively. For now, the function is restricted to some Revolut clients with a premium Metal card (which itself entails a month-to-month subscription payment) and covers 300 U.S.-listed shares. The firm says that it plans to broaden to U.Ok. and European shares in addition to Exchange Traded Funds sooner or later. Noteworthy, my understanding is that Revolut doesn’t have its personal dealer license however is partnering with US dealer DriveWealth for a part of its tech and the required regulatory authorisation (it additionally explains why, for now, Revolut is providing entry to U.S. shares solely).
In distinction, Freetrade has lengthy argued that to innovate inside buying and selling, you have to construct and personal the total brokerage stack. It was the primary mover on this regard amongst the brand new crop of “fee-free” buying and selling apps within the U.Ok., although others, together with Netherlands-based Bux and now Robinhood, have since taken the identical path. Only time will inform if Revolut can be pressured to do the identical.
Another tidbit is that Revolut and Robinhood share traders, particularly Index and DST. That makes for an attention-grabbing subplot as the 2 unicorns encroach on one another’s garden. No battle, no curiosity.
