The Robinhood stock trading app raised $ 2.4 billion over the weekend, despite criticism it suffered for interrupting the purchase of some stocks popularized by online forums.
The chief financial officer of the day’s trading app, Jason Warnick, said in a blog post on Monday that the latest infusion “will help us scale to meet the incredible growth we’ve seen and demand for our platform.”
The financing round was led by Ribbit Capital and included previous investors such as Sequoia Capital.
Robinhood was the target of criticism from almost all sides last week, after preventing users from buying shares in GameStop, AMC and Blackberry, companies that were targeted by the Reddit r / WallStreetBets sub-forum.
The company explained that it was forced to make that decision because the extra traffic on its product meant that it would have to put a lot more money in the clearinghouse that processes its trades. Traffic at Robinhood grew by an unprecedented 1,200% last week, according to an analysis by Similar Web.
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev said on Sunday at the Clubhouse invite-only social platform that last week an arm of the Wall Street Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation clearinghouse demanded $ 3 billion in additional guarantees.
Although demand has fallen to $ 700 million, said Tenev, the company was still forced to withdraw existing lines of credit.