Investors have scored returns in excess of 150% after bailing out the brokerage firm during the GameStop trading frenzy.
When hordes of retail traders caused meme stocks such as GameStop Corp. to soar at the beginning of the year, Robinhood Markets Inc. faced a potentially terminal margin call and needed to raise cash fast.
The online trading platform turned to investors including Ribbit Capital, Iconiq Capital, New Enterprise Associates and Index Ventures for a $3.55 billion rescue in the form of convertible debt. The venture firms drove a hard bargain — the debt would convert to Robinhood shares at 70% of the company’s offering price when it went public.
While triple-digit returns aren’t unheard of in venture capital, rarely do they come this quickly. According to Bloomberg calculations, the firms who stepped up in February are already sitting on $5.4 billion in gains.
Some of those investors now have the option to cash out, according to a regulatory filing on Thursday, a move that pushed down Robinhood’s shares by 13% after they doubled earlier this week.
Nora Chan, a spokeswoman for Robinhood, declined to comment.
The debt converted to Robinhood shares at a price of $26.60. The stock is currently trading at $61.30.
The rescue financing was split into two tranches of $2.5 billion and $1 billion. Investors in the larger portion also received warrants equal to 15% of the amount they invested, and the debt accrued interest at 6%.
The Thursday filing allows for holders of the first tranche of convertible debt — now equivalent to almost 98 million shares — to sell 50% of their shares. The remaining 50% must be held until Aug. 25. The largest of those holders, New Enterprise Associates, may trim its roughly 10% stake by about 3.9% or 2.9 million shares. Other possible sellers include entities affiliated with Amplo and Andreessen Horowitz.
While that pushed the stock lower, the investors are still sitting on gains in excess of 150%.
The 39 million shares associated with the second tranche of convertible debt aren’t included in Thursday’s filing.