Robinhood to buy fintech firm X1

Robinhood Markets is buying financial technology firm X1 Inc for about $95 million in cash as it looks for new revenue streams to counter weakness in its mainstay trading unit.

Robinhood, which was at the center of 2021's meme stock trading frenzy, has seen a decline in retail trading activity due to the impact of interest rate hikes on equity markets.

The broker said on Thursday X1's co-founders Deepak Rao and Siddharth Batra will join it to oversee the new business.


Based in San Francisco, X1 is a fintech company that offers smart credit cards to customers and counts Affirm CEO and Paypal co-founder Max Levchin as one of its main investors. X1 does not charge annual fees, late fees or foreign transaction fees on its cards.

"Together with X1, Robinhood will now be able to offer our customers access to credit," Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev said.

The deal is expected to close in the third quarter.