Retail investing platform Robinhood, which is committed to the goal of 'democratizing finance for all', debuted on Wall Street on Thursday, ending the day at $34.82 per share on their first day of trading on Thursday.
Robinhood, which rose to fame following the short-squeeze saga surrounding GameStop Corp during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, is popular for the easy-to-use interface for trading in cryptocurrencies and stocks.
Founded by Stanford University Roommates
The company founded by Stanford University roommates Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt in 2013, which started trading on the Nasdaq under the trading ticker $HOOD, is now worth some $32 billion.
"The U.S. stock market is one of the world's greatest sources of wealth creation. But for generations, it was out of reach for most people ... Robinhood changed that -- we've built investing products for everyday people, to put them in control of their financial futures," ," Tenev and Bhatt said in a joint statement, marking the stock market debut.
Controversial
Robinhood's moment of glory was controversial, as it was accused of halting trading of the stock GameStop stock after a huge horde of retail investors tried to take on Wall Street bigwigs which were betting against the video game retailer.
The company fought off allegations that it halted the trading at the behest of leading hedge funds and short sellers. It said the trading halt was caused by to clearinghouse-mandated deposit requirements.
According to Reuters, Robinhood said this week that US regulators are investigating if its employees traded shares of GameStop and AMC Entertainment Holdings.
On Thursday, the stock hit a high of $38 before quickly sliding as much as 10 percent to a low of about $33. It, however, recovered in the course of the day.
Whopping Revenue Growth
In 2020, the company declared a whopping revenue growth of 245 percent over the previous year. Revenues grew to $959 million from $278 million, driven by the popular interest in its zero-commission trading offerings.
"Our listing day is a celebration of our customers -- Generation Robinhood ... Through Robinhood, millions of everyday people have started investing in the stock market for the first time," the co-founders said in a joint statement.
