According to sources, and as reported by Bloomberg, the funding valuation is at pre-money $8 billion.

Online brokerage Robinhood, which has recently been in the news for repeated system outages, is said to be raising $250 million from investors led by Sequoia Capital. Bloomberg, which broke the news of the funding, quoted sources who requested to remain anonymous. (Bloomberg)

However, Bloomberg said it had received no confirmation from either Robinhood or Sequoia on the deal.

Previous funding round

In its previous series E funding round in July, Robinhood raised $323 million at a valuation of $7.6 billion. It is creditable that the brokerage received a higher valuation considering the turmoil in the financial markets from coronavirus. Another fintech, Stripe, also announced Thursday its fundraising $600 million at a higher valuation during the pandemic.

Other existing investors for the company include GV, Index Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, Dragoneer, Kleiner Perkins, and Ribbit Capital.

Since founding in 2013, Robinhood has obtained a total of $ 900 million in venture fund financing.

Robinhood and system outages

In March, Robinhood suffered system outages on three separate occasions of which two were spectacular trading days.

Travis Taafe, from Tampa, Florida, filed a class-action lawsuit against Robin Hood, seeking over $5 million in damages. According to Attorney Michael Taafe, who is also the plaintiff’s father, Robin Hood’s 10 million users are potential class members.

Separately, Shareholders Foundation, Inc. announced earlier this week that a lawsuit was filed for Robinhood users that were affected by the trading outages of the online brokerage firm Robinhood,  preventing customers from making securities trades through its website, app, or call center.

In a statement, the brokerage said it was learning from its mistakes and would work on improving the stability of its service as well as the overall customer experience.

Regardless, Robinhood is doing well

Bloomberg’s sources said Robinhood enjoyed record volumes and new accounts during the pandemic in March. Revenue for the month was reported at $60 million, the sources said, and triple that of the previous month of February.

The volatility in the markets supposedly attracted new customers for the commission-free brokerage.

At the end of December Robin Hood had more than 10 million accounts.

That figure is higher than E*Trade (NASDAQ: ETFC), which is being acquired by Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS).

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