One VC’s Blind Faith in Robinhood Turned $500,000 Into $3 Billion
Index Ventures, the largest shareholder, invested early and kept on investing for an astounding return.
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Eight years ago, Jan Hammer heard about a new app that wanted to let anyone buy and sell stocks without fees. At the time, though, Robinhood Markets Inc. was mainly just a business where people could trade stock tips. Hammer, a partner at the venture capital firm Index Ventures, saw the potential and set up a Google Hangouts video meeting with the founders. He wrote them a check for $500,000.
That investment, and the others that soon followed from Index, was the foundation for a stake now worth more than $3 billion, with Robinhood set to start trading Thursday on the Nasdaq.