Robinhood IPO Priced at Lower End of Range, Valued at $32B

Robinhood Markets, the parent company of the popular Robinhood trading app, priced its initial public offering at the lower end of its estimated range and is set to make its market debut on the Nasdaq exchange on Thursday.

• Robinhood has priced its offering at $38 per share, according to a press release on Wednesday,
• The pricing is at the lower end of the $38-$42 per share price range the company had targeted. It had planned on selling 5.5 million shares to raise $1.89 billion.
• The pricing values the company at $32 billion.
• Net proceeds from the sale will go toward working capital, capital expenditures, funding tax obligations, hiring new employees and customer support services.
• Shares will be listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, and Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan are acting as joint lead book-running managers, according to the release.
• Earlier this month, Robinhood began unconventionally offering a portion of its IPO to users via its app — a strategy some consider to be a risky gamble.
• Known for not charging commissions on trades, the company has continued to endure hits to its image as well as legal and political ramifications stemming from the fallout of the GameStop saga earlier this year and limitations to users trading crypto.
• The company is trying to reshape that image and is reportedly working on a new feature that will help protect users from crypto price volatility. It has also hired a Google alumn to improve its overall product design.
• Still, co-founder and CEO Vlad Tenev is facing allegations from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority over his failure to register with the regulator.