Robinhood halts plans to launch outside the United States

The US-based company said Tuesday that the UK debut of its product has been postponed indefinitely, and all global expansion plans have been put on hold.

"The world has changed a lot over the past several months and we're adapting with it," Robinhood said in an email to those who had added their names to a waitlist. "On a company level, we've come to recognize that our efforts are currently best spent on strengthening our core business in the US and making further investments in our foundational systems."

The company first announced that it would expand in the United Kingdom in November 2019. It initially said it would to launch in the country in early 2020.

Retail investing has seen a surge in popularity in recent months, with no-fee platforms like Robinhood allowing novice investors to get into stock trading at a moment of major volatility.

But US lawmakers have pressed Robinhood to improve safeguards on its app following the apparent suicide of a 20-year-old student who saw a negative account balance of $730,000.

Robinhood has said it will work with lawmakers and announced plans to improve its user interface, particularly around options trading.

"We are personally devastated by this tragedy," Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt, Robinhood's co-CEOs, wrote in a blog post last month.

The app has also experienced multiple high-profile outages on days with heavy trading volume.

Still, it's managed to attract significant interest from investors. Earlier this month, Robinhood raised another $320 million, giving it a valuation of $8.6 billion.