- Stock trading app Robinhood has indefinitely postponed its UK launch.
- The startup recently raised another $320 million at a valuation of $8.6 billion amid a boom in activity as millennials flock to trading during coronavirus.
- A spokesperson for the company said: "As a company, we are refocusing our efforts on strengthening our core business in the US. We know many people in the UK were excited to invest through Robinhood, and we regret that we cannot deliver our product to UK customers in 2020."
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Stock trading app Robinhood has postponed its UK launch indefinitely to focus its efforts on the US.
The unicorn startup announced plans to expand to the UK in November but has delayed its launch date during the coronavirus pandemic. Robinhood will now take down its UK website, with 266,492 people on its waitlist.
Robinhood has so far raised $1.5 billion in venture capital backing and has changed the landscape for equities trading mostly by attracting millennial traders to its platform. Now valued at $8.6 billion, the company has seen a boom in activity in the US as a new demographic looks to invest in financial markets.
Robinhood has more than 13 million users and has added 3 million users in 2020. The average age of its users is 31.
"A lot has changed in the world over the past few months, and we've made the difficult decision to postpone our UK launch indefinitely," a company spokesperson told Business Insider. "As a company, we are refocusing our efforts on strengthening our core business in the US. We know many people in the UK were excited to invest through Robinhood, and we regret that we cannot deliver our product to UK customers in 2020."
The company's success in recent months has not been completely smooth.
Robinhood was reportedly forced to install protective glass at its San Francisco headquarters as angry traders visited its offices. Many young traders have made and lost huge sums of money, and one 20-year-old university student killed himself after seeing he had a negative cash balance of $730,000 in his account.
The canceled launch may come as a relief to competing finance apps in Europe. Challenger bank Revolut offers stock trading through its app while rival trading app Freetrade has its own service for UK investors.
"Robinhood's entry would have brought with it significant category marketing spend — which would have been a boon for all players in the market," Vinoth Jayakumar, a partner at London-based VC Draper Esprit and an investor in Freetrade told Business Insider. "However, millennials are increasingly more 'self-directed' in making wealth management decisions, so there is already increasing awareness of the options available to them."
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SEE ALSO: Robinhood had to install protective glass after frustrated traders kept showing up at its office
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source https://www.businessinsider.com/robinhood-stock-trading-app-cancels-uk-expansion-2020-7
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