Robinhood's IPO filing makes it clear: The no-fee trading app is now a cultural force in its own right

• Robinhood's IPO filing shows it is a cultural force that has ushered in a new generation of investors.
• It has 32 million newsletter and podcast subscribers and almost 18 million monthly active users.
• Robinhood estimates nearly half of all new US retail accounts created in the last five years were on its platform.

32 million newsletter and podcast subscribers. Almost 18 million monthly active users. Brand recognition with more than half of 18-44 years olds in the US.

These statistics aren't for a media company or social media app. They're for Robinhood, the highly popular commission-free investing service.

A look inside Robinhood's IPO filings paints a clear picture that the no-fee trading app is a cultural force that has ushered in a new generation of investors unlike any traditional brokerage firm.

The firm's mission is to "democratize finance for all," and it was the first of its kind to offer commission-free trading to investors.

The prospect of no-fee mobile investing was likely what drove millions of new investors to Robinhood. Robinhood said it believes close to 50% of all new retail funded accounts opened in the US from 2016 to 2021 were new accounts created on Robinhood. The app cited new account data from publicly reporting peer brokerage.

The company also said that in an internal brand study from March 2021, over half of 18-44 year olds in the US knew what Robinhood was.

Also, Robinhood reported that retail investors are flocking to the site for investing education in growing numbers. Robinhood Learn had more than seven million cumulative page views as of March 31, 2021, and monthly unique visits to Robinhood Learn rose nearly six-fold from January 2020 to March 2021.

"While we are only six years into our journey, we have already seen profound transformations in how people think about their money - the next generation of investors is younger and more diverse than ever before, and finance is now as culturally relevant as music and the arts," cofounders Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt said in letter accompanying the app's IPO paperwork.

"By untethering investing from the desktop computer, we've seen new categories of people, including gig economy workers, first responders, construction workers, and many more, discovering Robinhood and becoming investors," they added.