Robinhood hires Aparna Chennapragada as the first product manager
Robinhood hired a top Google executive as its first product manager before its upcoming public debut.
The trading start-up said on Wednesday that it will bring Aparna Chennapragada, who has spent 12 years with Google’s product, engineering and design management teams. Most recently, he was vice president of consumer shopping and led product efforts for Google Search and YouTube.
Chennapragada, who is also on the board of Capital One, said he has spent his career at Google “building products that help billions of people in their daily lives,” and at Robinhood intends to help more people to build their financial future and personal wealth. “
“Robinhood has built a unique affordable product that has opened up financial markets to millions of people,” Chennapragada said in a statement on Wednesday.
Robinhood has been criticized for making markets too accessible in some cases and “gamifying” stock markets. CEO Vlad Tenev testified before Congress in February and addressed the frenzy of trading around GameStop, as well as Robinhood’s decision to close the purchase of certain transactions.
Despite the GameStop controversy, user growth, brand recognition and Robinhood brand evaluation seem to have gained momentum. Demand for Robinhood shares in private markets rose in February, and Robinhood gained 3 million users in January alone, according to JMP Securities estimates.
The company has stepped up hiring in recent months to keep up with customer service requests and complaints. On Monday, Robinhood announced it would buy recruiting firm Binc to double the size of its recruiting team.
Robinhood has been known to reach executives in both Wall Street and Silicon Valley in its eight-year history. He hired former SEC Commissioner Dan Gallagher as head of the legal department last year, and its first marketing director, Christina Smedley, came from Facebook. Robinhood’s chief financial officer joined Amazon after two decades, and its chief operating officer, Gretchen Howard, is also a former Google executive.
The start-up is best known for lowering the entry barrier for a flow of new retail investors and kicking off a wave of brokerage firms that have reduced commissions to zero. The start-up attracted investments from Sequoia, Kleiner Perkins and Google’s venture capital arm, GV. It was last valued at $ 11.7 billion, but is expected to be valued at up to four times that of its eventual IPO, according to early investors.
The US brokerage company is expected to go public in the coming months and has chosen Nasdaq as an exchange for its possible debut, sources familiar with the matter told CNBC. The company has not officially submitted the application for listing.
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