Baiju Prafulkumar Bhatt (born 1984/1985) is an American entrepreneur of Indian descent. He is the chief creative officer and co-founder, along with

Vladimir Tenev Vladimir Tenev (; born 13 February 1987) is a Bulgarian-American entrepreneur who is the co-founder (with Baiju Bhatt) and CEO of Robinhood, a US-based financial technology services company. Early life Tenev was born in Bulgaria, and his parent ...

, of Robinhood, a US-based financial services company.

Early life

Baiju Prafulkumar Bhatt, the son of Indian immigrants, grew up in

Poquoson, Virginia Poquoson (), informally known as Bull Island, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 12,460. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the city of Poquoson with surrounding York County ...

. He earned a bachelor's degree in physics from Stanford University where he also completed a master's degree in mathematics in 2008. He and Tenev met during Bhatt's time at Stanford.

Career

In 2013, Bhatt co-founded the trading platform Robinhood with Tenev. The idea stemmed from witnessing the issues in the financial industry during the 2011 protests of

Occupy Wall Street Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was a protest movement against economic inequality and the influence of money in politics that began in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street financial district, in September 2011. It gave rise to t ...

. In 2015, Robinhood launched a mobile app. Following a funding round in May 2018 which increased Robinhood's valuation to $6 billion, Bhatt and Tenev became billionaires. As of August 2021, ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

'' has estimated his net worth at US$2.4 billion.

Awards and recognition

Bhatt spoke at Disrupt SF 2018 on investing where he announced plans to launch an IPO for Robinhood in 2019. Bhatt made the Goldhouse 100 most impactful Asians in 2021. Bhatt appeared in a ''Fast Company'' list, "Most Creative People", in 2017, and a ''Forbes'' "30 Under 30" list in 2016.

Personal life

Bhatt is married, with one child, and lives in

Palo Alto Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was es ...

, California.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bhatt, Baiju Living people American company founders American billionaires Stanford University alumni 1980s births Robinhood (company) American people of Indian descent 21st-century American businesspeople People from Poquoson, Virginia