Robinhood to acquire the UK crypto firm, Ziglu Limited, pending regulatory approval. The size of the deal is undisclosed. Ziglu Limited was founded in 2014 by Mark Hipperson who contributed to the establishment of the digital lender, Starling Bank.
Ziglu group was valued in November at GBP 85 million following a funding round when it raised GBP 7 million. Robinhood selected Ziglu as it is among the crypto companies that are fully licensed by the FCA.
Only 33 out of a long list of crypto companies received the approval of the FCA. By acquiring Ziglu, Robinhood will have regulated access to the UK market.
Robinhood followed the path of other crypto exchanges that have targeted UK firms due to their FCA approval. Bitpanda acquired Trustology for that very reason.
A month after Bitpanda's acquisition , Binance formed a partnership with Eqonex.
In 2020, Robinhood announced it is cancelling its plans to launch in the UK. In addition, the crypto company said it is placing its global expansion plans on hold.
"We initially planned to launch Robinhood in the UK in 2020. A lot changed in the world in the first half of 2020, and so we made the difficult decision to postpone our UK launch indefinitely in July 2020."
Officials Statements
Mark Hipperson, the Founder and CEO of Ziglu, said: "Ziglu and Robinhood share a common set of goals, working to reduce the barriers to entry for a new generation of investors, and we’re excited to pursue that mission together.
“As part of Robinhood, we’ll supercharge Robinhood’s expansion across Europe and bring better access to crypto and its benefits to millions more customers."
Vlad Tenev, the CEO and Co-Founder of Robinhood Markets said: "Ziglu’s impressive team of deeply experienced financial services and crypto experts will help us accelerate our global expansion efforts.
“Together with the Ziglu team, we’ll work to leverage the best of both companies, exploring new ways to innovate and break down barriers for customers across the UK and Europe.”
Robinhood has also shown some interest in NFTs.
