Robinhood goes UK🇬🇧: Part III 👀; bunq will probably fail in the US 🇺🇸

FinTech is Eating the World, 27 July

Hey Everyone,

Happy Thursday! Today we’re looking at two different yet very interesting expansion efforts from prominent FinTechs - Robinhood which goes to the UK for the 3rd (!!!) time (why + lots of bonus reads), and bunq which wants to conquer the US (why it will probably fail + lessons from Monzo). Let’s jump straight into the intriguing stuff 🌶

Robinhood goes UK🇬🇧: Part III 👀

The news 🗞 US stock trading giant Robinhood HOOD 0.00%↑ has tapped Freetrade executive Jordan Sinclair to lead its renewed plan for a UK launch. Again.

More on this 👉 Sinclar has been approved by the FCA to act as Robinhood UK Ltd CEO, a register shows, as per Bloomberg.

Sinclar has been MD of Europe, at the UK stock trading app Freetrade for a little over a year. Previously, he worked at Barclays.

ICYMI: Freetrade gets a 65% valuation cut 😳 [+ extra reads on Robinhood & Apple]

Robinhood is planning to launch brokerage services for UK retail investors later this year.

Fool me once… 👀 This is the third time the US retail broker is trying to crack the United Kingdom. Robinhood first tried to launch in the UK in 2020, a plan which was postponed and eventually canceled as it dealt with operational problems caused by an explosion of day trading in its core US market during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Next, the stock trading app looked to acquire crypto trading platform Ziglu in 2022 for a whopping $170M, another plan which fell apart after being renegotiated for less than half the amount ($72.5M).

ICYMI: Tinder date doesn't guarantee a relationship: Robinhood kisses goodbye to Ziglu 😢 [+more reads]

✈️ THE TAKEAWAY

So why again? 🤔 From the first sight this seems odd. Payment for order flow (PFOF) - which is probably 90% of Robinhood’s biz - is still illegal in the UK while the market became much more crowded (we must remember that Public and WeBull have recently entered the UK as well). On the other hand, Robinhood today is a completely different business. Despite a massive correction since IPO, the stock is up 51% YTD, it’s expanding into all things money (see below about X1) while searching for new markets to grow (the US has been stalling for quite some time now). With that said, the 3rd time might actually hit home.

Bonus: Robinhood takes on Apple 😮 [+2 more reads]

When 1 + 1 = 3: Robinhood buys credit card startup X1 💳 [it all starts to make sense]