On the eve of an IPO

Robinhood, whose investment app allows you to trade stocks and cryptocurrencies, held an unconventional public roadshow, inviting all potential investors.

Robinhood's initial public offering, or IPO, will take place this Thursday, July 29, on the NASDAQ exchange. Robinhood's shares will be traded under the ticker HOOD, with the company promising to allocate up to 35% of its shares for sale to customers through the IPO Access feature of the app.

Robinhood said it would offer 55 million shares at a price range of between $38 and $42 per share, suggesting a market valuation of around $35bn.

On Saturday, Robinhood's two co-founders, chief executive Vlad Tenev and chief creative officer Baiju Bhatt, and chief financial officer Jason Warnick, following the company's "democratising investing for all" principle, held an online roadshow for anyone interested.

A roadshow is a kind of presentation that companies make before they go public, but it is usually held offline for a limited number of large potential investors, such as hedge funds and institutional investors.

Robinhood roadshow results

Robinhood has pledged not to allow restrictions on the platform, as happened with GameStop shares.

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev admitted it was a mistake when the company temporarily restricted the purchase of GameStop (GME) shares and other "meme stocks", whose trading was "speculative". Robinhood intends to become an international app.

In its pre-IPO presentation, Robinhood stated its ambition to expand internationally.

Robinhood will introduce new types of investment accounts.

Robinhood said on Saturday it plans to add new types of investment accounts that Americans will be able to open on the company's app, including IRAs and Roth IRAs. Robinhood will feature a "crypto wallet" for cryptocurrency settlement. The Robinhood app has seen an increase in account openings to 18 million as of 31 March 2021, a 151% increase on the previous year. This was achieved in part due to the app's ability to trade cryptocurrency, which showed dramatic growth last year and early 2021.

Robinhood believes it is "adapting" without its current main source of income.