By Michael Scott
American financial services company Robinhood confirmed acquiring Pluto to deliver AI-powered insights to its retail investor base.
The retail investment platform hailed Pluto’s acquisition in the announcement on Monday. Robinhood considers Pluto’s reputable positioning to guide Generation Z in securing a financial future.
Robinhood Acquires Pluto Capital
Using AI-powered analytics in trading space and developing investment strategies is becoming a mainstay feature. However, the Pluto Capital Inc. acquisition represented Robinhood’s first foray to bring AI proximity to its 10 million monthly users.
Mayank Agarwal, engineering vice president at Robinhood, hailed the move of Pluto acquisition, citing its expertise in AI. The mission-aligned passion for democratizing finance will complement Robinhood’s efforts to integrate AI-powered solutions into its customers.
Pluto provides web-based services allowing users access to enhanced data analysis and real-time insights. Besides the individualized investment strategies, Pluto offers portfolio optimization using judgment-free conversational AI.
Pluto offers an investing copilot system uniquely designed to provide advanced data analytics by tapping large language models (LLMs) to process market data.
Also, the copilot system facilitates processing of market data, trends and opportunities identification.
Also, the system offers tailored investment recommendations relative to the customer profiles on risk tolerance and financial goals.
Pluto confirmed taking the service offline and turning it into a website for informational purposes.
Pluto AI-Powered Capabilities
Pluto’s chief executive, Jacob Sansbury, has been behind the entity since his 24th birthday, earning admiration and the title of Gen Z boss on the TikTok channel.
Sansbury’s previous engagements were in NVIDIA’s cloud gaming service. Also, the executive worked at the Connecticut-based asset management firm Bridgewater in quantitative finance and systematic investing.
Sansbury is set to join the Robinhood team and steer the integration of AI-powered capabilities in the entire investment platform.
Robinhood offers the ideal destination to create products capable of democratizing access to financial services. Sansbury touted the AI-powered tools as capable of powering Robinhood’s wealth management and financial planning.
Robinhood has nurtured a reputation for offering a user-friendly interface via mobile applications. It yields retail investors access to stocks, crypto, and options trading.
The accessibility offers Robinhood an outsized role within the 2021 “meme stock” craze. The meme craze saw the investors rush to stocks such as GameStop.
Robinhood Scales into Crypto Offering
Robinhood has recently devoted itself to expanding offerings targeting retirement products and credit card services. In June, Robinhood purchased the crypto exchange Bitstamp for $200 million.
The trading platform revealed that the $200 million cash deal is anticipated to conclude the activities by mid-2025 upon securing the regulatory approvals. Bitstamp’s team is joining forces with Robinhood, as revealed by the platform’s crypto head, Johann Kerbrat, as the strategic combination.
Robinhood will tap the expertise of the Bitstamp team in scaling its footprint beyond the United States and usher institutional clients.
Meanwhile, Robinhood Markets is contemplating unveiling crypto futures for US and European customers. The initiative will launch in the subsequent months, offering commission-free investing and trading platform alternatives.
Robinhood projects to finalize the $200 million acquisition of Bitstamp Ltd next year. Robinhood anticipates leveraging the Bitstamp licenses to unveil the perpetual futures for Bitcoin and other cryptos to its European customers.
Robinhood harbours plans to offer CME-based futures within the US market for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH).
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