Robinhood
“Can a zero-commission brokerage become the primary financial account — banking, investing, credit, and crypto — for the next generation of retail consumers?”
Founded in 2013 as a zero-commission stock brokerage targeting retail investors, Robinhood disrupted incumbents by eliminating trading fees and democratizing access to equities and crypto. Post-IPO, it pivoted aggressively toward becoming a full consumer financial OS — launching IRAs, a spending account, a credit card, crypto wallet, and now a banking product with high-yield savings, managed portfolios, and futures trading. The embedded finance angle is primarily inward: Robinhood uses third-party BaaS and card-issuing infrastructure (Coastal Community Bank for card issuance, licensed money transmitter entity for spending) to offer banking-adjacent products on top of its brokerage core, while also building proprietary infrastructure (Robinhood Securities self-clearing, Robinhood Chain L2) to reduce dependence on external rails.