They may not be stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, but the folks at free stock-trading app maker Robinhood Market Inc. are certainly merry as the company raised yet more venture capital ahead of its expected initial public offering.

The latest raise of $460 million is an extension on its Series G round of $200 million announced in August, taking the total round to $660 million. The additional funding in the round came from Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, DST Global, Ribbit Capital, 9Yards Capital and D1 Capital Partners, the initial lead on the Series G round, according to Reuters. Notably, D1 Capital Partners was the led on the Series G round initially. The valuation on the additional funding is said to be $11.7 billion, up from a $11.2 billion valuation as of the initial Series G raise.

Robinhood confirmed the new funding, saying that it raised the additional $460 million “in subsequent closings to our Series G to support our core product and customer experience and new offerings like cash management and recurring investments.”

Founded in 2013, Robinhood was the first and now the most popular zero-fee stock trading app often cited as beloved by millennials. The company first started offering a web-based service in November 2017 before adding support for cryptocurrency trading in January 2018.

According to Crunchbase, Robinhood’s total amount raised now sits at $2.2 billion. A sizable portion of that venture capital came this year. After raising $323 million on a $7.6 billion valuation in July 2019, Robinhood followed up this year with $280 million on an $8.3 billion valuation in May, followed by $320 million on an $8.6 billion valuation in July. Including the new funding, both the Series G and extension, Robinhood has raised $1.26 billion in the last three months.

Reports of Robinhood looking to go public first emerged in 2018, but with user numbers surging this year and the strong IPO market, the company is a good chance to go public before the end of the year.

COVID-19 has driven much of Robinhood’s growth this year as people forced to work from home take advantage of Robinhood’s stock trading facilities at the same time. The surge in users is reflected in the continuing strong pre-IPO valuations. Between the round in July and today, investors now value Robinhood by an additional 36%, a remarkable short-term rise for a VC-backed company.

Photo: Elliot Brown/Wikimedia Commons