- Robinhood announced that its Robinhood Retirement offering was now available to all eligible customers.
- The company, which offered a waitlist for interested customers in December, said that more than one million people have signed up for the new investment service.
- Robinhood will provide a 1% match for every eligible dollar customers contribute to their Robinhood Retirement plan.
Robinhood, which gained notoriety in recent years as a platform for traders of meme stocks like AMC and Gamestop, announced this week that it is making its Robinhood Retirement offering available to all eligible customers. Unveiled via waitlist in December, the new IRA product offers a 1% match for every eligible dollar contributed – the first and only individual retirement account to do so, according to Robinhood.
Baiju Bhatt, company co-founder and Chief Creative Officer said in a statement: “Systems are failing to catch up to the needs of how many people live and save (or don’t) … We see an opportunity to be a part of the solution, to build products that adapt to the way work and savings will evolve, and ensure people have the tools to control their financial future – just like the way we started.”
Robinhood claims that more than one million people have signed up for the new service via the company’s waitlist. A significant number of these individuals, according to Robinhood, are freelancers and members of the so-called “gig economy,” who often struggle to find solutions to help them prepare for retirement. Robinhood Retirement will enable customers to open multiple Robinhood brokerage accounts and earn a 1% match from Robinhood on eligible contribution dollars. Customers will be able to grow their earnings in tax-free or tax-deferred accounts, and can invest in both stocks and ETFs. The product’s Portfolio Builder feature helps customers build their own investment portfolio, use a custom recommended portfolio, or a combination of both – all without having to pay a commission. Robinhood added that the company plans to authorize options trading in retirement accounts as well – also with no commission or per-contract fees.
“In 2023, Robinhood remains a company fundamentally focused on the unmet needs of the next generations,” Bhatt noted in a blog post announcing the availability of Robinhood Retirement. “No matter how income is earned, we believe the impact of providing long term savings incentives are just as powerful today as they were for our parents’ generation.”
Founded in 2013 by Bhatt and Vlad Tenev, Robinhood offers commission-free trading of stocks, exchange-traded funds, and cryptocurrencies. With total assets of more than $19.7 billion and revenues of $1.8 billion – both as of 2021 – Robinhood boasts more than 22 million funded accounts and nearly 16 million monthly average users as of the spring of 2022. Robinhood is a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ under the ticker HOOD. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.8 billion.