The stock trading app Robinhood raised $ 2.4 billion over the weekend despite criticism it supported for stopping the purchase of some shares popularized by online forums.
The chief financial officer of the daily trading app, Jason Warnick, said Monday in a blog post that the latest infusion “will help us scale to meet the incredible growth we’ve seen and demanded for our platform.”
The financing round was led by Ribbit Capital and included previous investors such as Sequoia Capital.
Robinhood took heat from almost every side last week after blocking users from buying shares of GameStop, AMC and Blackberry, companies targeted by the Reddit r / WallStreetBets subforum.
The company has explained that it was forced to make this decision because the additional traffic of its product meant that it had to invest a lot more money in the clearing house that processes its operations. According to an analysis by Similar Web, traffic to Robinhood grew by an unprecedented 1,200 percent last week.
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev said on Sunday on the Clubhouse social platform for invitations only that last week an arm of the Wall Street Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation demanded $ 3 billion in additional collateral .
Although demand fell to $ 700 million, Tenev said, the company was still forced to map out existing lines of credit.