Robinhood's new credit card was announced Tuesday, and while it's only available to Robinhood Gold members, the Gold card has a feature that's making headlines. It is a feature that allows you to invest your cashback bonus into investments.
The announcement comes eight months after it acquired startup X1 for $95 million, and coincidentally one of X1's biggest features was the ability to invest in cashback rewards. Coincidence? Obviously not! Robinhood says this bonus, plus a number of other perks, including the ability to add family members as cardholders, even if they're young and don't have a Social Security number, are enough to lure customers away from Apple. I'm looking forward to it.
But what does a tech company gain by entering the consumer finance game? Robinhood insists its choice to offer cards is just an extension of its already expanding portfolio of financial products. Some people may. But remember, Apple has cards too. And the tech giant is moving deeper into the realm of personal finance over time.
It's nothing new for technology companies to expand the remit of their products over time — no, I wrote about it in 2014 — but it's true that everyday consumer finance is becoming a technology story. Worth noting. Click the clip and let's chat!