Robinhood plans 3rd attempt at UK launch with Jordan Sinclair hire

US neobroker Robinhood has rekindled its plan to launch in the UK for the third time, this time by recruiting Freetrade’s former director of international expansion.

Jordan Sinclair was approved by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority on 18 July to act as CEO and an executive director of Robinhood UK, an appointment first spotted by Bloomberg.

Timing of any launch is not certain, nor even are the plans guaranteed, as we’ve seen before with the company’s many failed attempts to launch.

Robinhood first tried to launch in the UK during 2020, a plan which was postponed and eventually cancelled amid the Covid pandemic and internal changes at the company.

Next, the stock trading app looked to acquire crypto trading platform Ziglu in 2022 for $170m, another plan which fell apart after being renegotiated for less than half the amount ($72.5m).

Robinhood today is a completely different business however, having listed its shares in 2021 and seen their price rise by some 40 per cent in the last year to a valuation of around $11.5bn.

Now the company appears to be back to try and crack the UK market once again, testing the limits of the old proverb “fool me three times, shame on both of us”.