Robinhood Shelves Global Expansion Plans Indefinitely

Robinhood is putting on hold its foray into international markets as well as the launch of its United Kingdom services, CNN reported Tuesday.

What Happened

The Menlo Park, California-based mobile trading app had announced its U.K. expansion in November 2019, with a scheduled launch due in early 2020, but has put off plans to expand indefinitely as it faces fresh scrutiny at home.

In an e-mail sent to prospective customers on a waiting list seen by the news network, Robinhood wrote, “On a company level, we've come to recognize that our efforts are currently best spent on strengthening our core business in the US and making further investments in our foundational systems.”

The financial services provider is facing pressure from lawmakers in the U.S. as a 20-year old student, Alex Kearns, apparently died by suicide after seeing a negative balance of $750,000 on his app account.

Following Kearns's death, the trading platform's co-CEOs Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatta said last month that Robinhood is working to improve eligibility criteria, educational resources, and user interface specifically around options trading. 

Why It Matters

Robinhood is valued at $8.6 billion after it raised $320 million in the latest series of funding earlier this month.

The mobile brokerage’s success is being attributed by some analysts to a demand for its services as retail investors flock to the volatile markets. Robinhood also suffered an outage in March leading to customers missing opportunities during trading sessions.
Photo Credit: Robinhood.com