Robinhood seeks $35bn valuation as US broker taps frenzy around Gamestop and Reddit          

Robinhood caught on during the coronavirus pandemic as homebound young people turned to online trading to pass the time and make money. File picture

Robinhood Markets is seeking a valuation of $35bn (€30bn) in its initial public offering, just short of the highest analyst projections, as the free trading app advances toward a debut likely to draw in buyers from its own novice investor base.

The company was at the centre of this year’s meme US stock frenzy that involved, among others, Reddit and Gamestop. 

Robinhood caught on during the coronavirus pandemic as homebound young people turned to online trading to pass the time and make money. 

Its monthly active users have more than doubled in the past year, with 17.7m as of the first quarter, up from 8.6m in the same period in 2020.

Robinhood aims to raise more than $2bn in its public debut. The company is expected to start trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market on July 29. 

As a publicly traded brokerage, Robinhood will join the ranks of Coinbase Global, a cryptocurrency trading platform that debuted this year and is currently worth almost $47bn, and industry heavyweight Charles Schwab, which bought competitor TD Ameritrade last year and has a market value of about $130bn. 

This year has already set an all-time record, with 648 companies raising a total of about $218bn, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. 

Duolingo

Meanwhile, Duolingo said it aimed to be valued by as much as $3.41bn in its US initial public offering, as the language-learning app maker seeks to cash in on rapidly rising interest for online education tools during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

And fresh produce firm Dole said it planned to raise as much as $598m in an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange, aiming a valuation of more than $2.1bn. The company formed earlier this year by the merger with the Irish-owned Total Produce. 

• Bloomberg and Reuters