Robinhood, a commission-free investing app, announced on Wednesday that its subsidiary, Robinhood International, Ltd. has been granted authorization by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to operate as a broker within the United Kingdom.
According to the FCA’s Register, the subsidiary was authorized on August 7, 2019, with the firm reference number 823590. The authorization will allow Robinhood to bring its investing platform to the UK, which is a critical step in its strategy, the statement released by the company said.
Leading the UK operations is Wander Rutgers, who has been appointed as the President of Robinhood International. In this role, he will oversee the company’s new London office, among other duties.
Prior to his current position, Wander was working at Plum Fintech , a personal savings assistant. While here, he was in charge of the investing and savings product. During his career, he has also worked at TransferWise, where he also led product, compliance, and operations teams.
Wander Rutgers, President of Robinhood International
Source: LinkedIn
Commenting on the announcement, Wander Rutgers, President of Robinhood International said: “Today marks the beginning of a new chapter for Robinhood, and we’re excited to take the first important step towards bringing our investing platform to customers in the U.K. I’m thrilled to be a part of Robinhood and our effort to expand into a new international market.”
As of yet, Robinhood has not yet launched in the UK, as getting authorization was the first step to achieve this. At present, the company is building up its London team and is hiring across compliance, operations, user research, and marketing.
Robinhood brings in $323 million in latest Funding Round
Yesterday’s announcement follows on the heels of Robinhood closing its latest round of funding, bringing in $323 million at a $7.6 billion valuation. As Finance Magnates reported, this is up by $2 billion from its Series D valuation in 2018.
The investment was led by DST Global, the firm run by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, and includes participation from new and existing investors such as Ribbit Capital, NEA, Sequoia and Thrive Capital.
