Robinhood’s co-founders Vladimir Tenev (left) and Baiju Bhatt. Source: Robinhood Popular stock-trading platform Robinhood is preparing to go public. The company's CEO Baiju Bhatt said Thursday that in the "medium to long-term" the company will look to do an initial public offering, or IPO. "It's something we think is very much in the future. Being a public company closely aligns with our mission," Bhatt said on stage at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco. "Not in the immediate term, but it's something we're thinking about." The online brokerage is looking for a chief financial officer as a part of that mission, and is undergoing audits from U.S. regulators, Bhatt said. The Menlo Park, California-based start-up is known for its zero-fee trading platform that rolled out about three years ago. Robinhood, which is mostly used by millennials age 18-35, also offers ETFs, options and, as of February, cryptocurrency trading. In May, it surpassed its rival E-Trade Financial and has a total of 5 million brokerage accounts. Investors in its latest $363 million fundraising round included Sequoia, Google's venture capital fund Capital G, DST Global and Iconiq, boosting its valuation to $5.6 billion. Company executives have hinted at expanding beyond stock-trading services. "We have an ambitious long-term vision to become a full-service financial services company over the next couple of years," co-founder Vlad Tenev told CNBC in August. The start-up is dealing with increased competition in the brokerage industry as more no-fee options come to market. J.P. Morgan announced its own commission-fee trading app in August, intensifying an ongoing price war and move to lower fees in retail brokerage.
Google has confirmed it is searching for a chief financial officer as part of longer-term plans to take the company public. The 5 million -fee trading platform, valued at $ $363 million in a series D funding round in less than a month ago , revealed its plans as the no-fee space faces increasing competition, with JP Morgan launching fee-free trading for retail investors May .