Vlad Tenev

Vladimir Tenev
Tenev in 2025
Born (1987-02-13) February 13, 1987
Varna, Bulgaria
EducationStanford (BS)
UCLA (MS)
OccupationEntrepreneur
Known forCEO and Co-founder, Robinhood
SpouseCelina Tenev
Children3

Vladimir Tenev (Bulgarian: Владимир Тенев; born 13 February 1987) is an American entrepreneur who is most notably the co-founder (with Baiju Bhatt), Chairman, and CEO of Robinhood, a US-based financial technology services company.

Tenev moved to the United States from his native Bulgaria at the age of five. After studying mathematics at Stanford and UCLA and getting a master's degree, he decided to partner with Baiju Bhatt to create several fintech startups. One of them, Robinhood, became a publicly-traded multibillion-dollar company.

As of July 2025, Tenev has a net worth of $6 billion.[1] This is largely due to his over 6% stake at Robinhood[2] as well as cryptocurrency investments.[1]

Early life and education

Tenev was born in Varna, Bulgaria.[3] When he was a toddler, his parents migrated to the U.S. leaving him with his grandparents before he joined them when he was five.[4] His parents both worked for the World Bank.[5] He attended Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology[6] in Fairfax County, Virginia, to which he later donated $125,000.[7]

He earned a bachelor's of science degree in mathematics from Stanford University, where he met Baiju Bhatt.[8] He was a member of a fraternity at Stanford.[9] In 2008, he earned a master's degree in mathematics from the University of California in Los Angeles,[10][11] and originally intended to study for a PhD in mathematics at UCLA and pursue a career in academia.[12] He instead dropped out to work with Bhatt.[5][13]

Career

Early career

In 2010, Tenev and Baiju Bhatt started a high-frequency trading software company called Celeris, based in New York.[12][14] By January 2011 they abandoned it to create Chronos Research, which sold low-latency software to other trading firms and banks.[15] Later in 2011, they moved to California.[12]

Robinhood

Main article: Robinhood Markets

In 2013, Tenev and Bhatt co-founded the trading platform Robinhood.[8] In 2015, Robinhood launched its mobile app to the public.[16] Following a funding round in May 2018 which increased Robinhood's valuation to $6 billion, Tenev and Bhatt became billionaires.[8][17]

In November 2020, Tenev became the sole CEO of Robinhood, having previously shared the co-CEO title with Bhatt.[18] The next year, Robinhood debuted on the stock market. The initial public offering (IPO) for the company placed it at a $32 billion valuation.[19]

GameStop short squeeze

Main article: GameStop short squeeze

By 2021, Robinhood was an app often used by individual investors at or reading the r/wallstreetbets subreddit to execute short squeezes on companies such as GameStop and AMC Entertainment.[20] As a result, the targeted companies' stock experienced huge price volatility.[21] On January 28, 2021, Robinhood was among a number of brokerages that stopped offering users to buy stock or options of affected companies. The company explained that it could not meet federal clearinghouse deposit requirements and so had to restrict trading,[22][23] and Tenev defended Robinhood's actions.[24]

The decision sparked widespread criticism from users of the app as well as politicians in both major American parties, who alleged that Robinhood did so to protect institutional investors from incurring losses instead of the stated goal of democratizing stock market investment.[25][26] On 18 February, Tenev testified before the United States House Committee on Financial Services to explain Robinhood's actions. He apologized for the suspension of trading but, even though the lawmakers seemed unsatisfied with Tenev's answers, he stated that he did nothing wrong.[20] In July 2021, in connection with the controversy, Robinhood disclosed during the IPO that the US Attorney's Office had executed a search warrant for Tenev's cell phone as part of a probe into the GameStop short squeeze.[27][28]

Sebastian Stan portrayed Tenev in the 2023 film Dumb Money, a drama about the GameStop short squeeze.[29]

Other activities

Tenev co-founded Palo Alto-based artificial intelligence startup Harmonic in 2023, where he is the executive chairman.[30][31] Its aim is to reduce AI hallucinations by generating and checking Lean code,[32] and also to improve AI's mathematical skills.[31]

Awards

Year Awards Category Result Ref.
2016 Forbes 30 Under 30 Young Traders Won [33]
2022 Forbes 30 Under 30 Hall of Fame [34]
2025 Fortune 100 Most Powerful People in Business [35]
2025 Forbes 400 [36]

Personal life

Tenev is married to Celina A. Tenev, a co-founder of an emergency health service, Call9.[37] They have three children.[38] Tenev is a fitness enthusiast and credits his training routine with helping him manage stress.[39]

References

  1. ^ a b Bambysheva, Nina. "Inside Robinhood's Crypto-Fueled Plan For World Domination". Forbes. Retrieved November 11, 2025.
  2. ^ "Vlad Tenev - Robinhood Markets". Forbes. Retrieved November 11, 2025.
  3. ^ Kolhatkar, Sheelah (May 10, 2021). "Robinhood's Big Gamble". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved October 28, 2025.
  4. ^ "The founders of Robinhood, a no-fee stock-trading app, were initially rejected by 75 venture capitalists — now their startup is worth $1.3 billion". Retrieved July 23, 2018.
  5. ^ a b "Vlad Tenev, 28". Forbes. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
  6. ^ Thomas Jefferson HS. "Thomas Jefferson HS". Twitter.
  7. ^ "An Unprecedented Gift to Secure TJ's Bright Future". TJ Partnership Fund.
  8. ^ a b c "Robinhood Founders Are Billionaires in Silicon Valley Minute". Bloomberg News. May 11, 2018. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
  9. ^ Constine, Josh (December 11, 2014). "Robinhood Launches Zero-Fee Stock Trading App". TechCrunch.
  10. ^ Svensson, Philip (September 15, 2025). "Vlad Tenev: Co-founder & CEO of Robinhood". Quartr.
  11. ^ Santil, Lance (June 17, 2019). "2019 Math Commencement Keynote Speaker: Vladimir Tenev". UCLA Mathematics.
  12. ^ a b c Raz, Guy (April 12, 2021). "Robinhood: Vlad Tenev". NPR.
  13. ^ Ongchoco, David (August 12, 2015). "Startup Insider: The Story Behind Stock Trading App Robinhood and Its One Million-Person Waitlist". HuffPost. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
  14. ^ Chafkin, Max; Verhage, Julie (February 9, 2018). "Brokerage App Robinhood Thinks Bitcoin Belongs in Your Retirement Plan". Bloomberg.
  15. ^ "Win the Stock Market with Crowd Sourced Advice from New App Robinhood". April 18, 2013.
  16. ^ "Online Brokerage Robinhood Will Offer Bitcoin And Ethereum Trading In February". Forbes. January 25, 2018.
  17. ^ "Meet the 11 new tech billionaires that emerged in 2018". Retrieved July 23, 2018.
  18. ^ "This app completely disrupted the trading industry". CNN. December 13, 2019.
  19. ^ "Robinhood valued at $32 billion after selling shares in IPO at $38 per share". CNBC. July 28, 2021.
  20. ^ a b Popper, Nathaniel; Phillips, Matt (February 18, 2021). "In GameStop Saga, Robinhood Is Cast as the Villain". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 19, 2021.
  21. ^ "Robinhood CEO Says Trading Limits Will Protect Firm, Customers". Bloomberg.com. January 29, 2021. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
  22. ^ "Robinhood restricts trading in GameStop, other names involved in frenzy". CNBC. January 28, 2021.
  23. ^ Collins, Eliza (February 18, 2021). "Who Are Keith Gill and Other Key Players at the GameStop Hearing?". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
  24. ^ "Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev speaks out on decision to restrict trading on GameStop and other stocks". CNBC. January 29, 2021. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
  25. ^ "Robinhood founder Vlad Tenev says app blocked GameStop buys to "protect investors"". Newsweek. January 28, 2021. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
  26. ^ "Under fire, Robinhood CEO apologizes to Congress for restricting trading". NBC News. February 18, 2021. Retrieved February 19, 2021.
  27. ^ Kay, Grace. "Robinhood's IPO filing reveals the US Attorney's Office executed a search warrant for CEO Vlad Tenev's cell phone". Business Insider. Retrieved July 5, 2021.
  28. ^ Sigalos, MacKenzie (July 1, 2021). "Feds seized Robinhood CEO's phone as part of GameStop trading probe". CNBC. Retrieved July 5, 2021.
  29. ^ "'Dumb Money' First Look: The GameStop Stock Frenzy Is Now a Movie". Vanity Fair. June 21, 2023. Retrieved October 18, 2023.
  30. ^ Victor, John (August 8, 2024). "Sequoia Capital Has Discussed Funding AI Reasoning Startup Cofounded by Robinhood CEO". The Information.
  31. ^ a b Fried, Ina (June 10, 2024). "Exclusive: Robinhood CEO backs startup to boost AI's math skills". Axios.
  32. ^ Metz, Cade (September 23, 2024). "Is Math the Path to Chatbots That Don't Make Stuff Up?". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 24, 2024.
  33. ^ Vardi, Nathan. "30 Under 30 Finance: The Top Young Traders, Bankers And Dealmakers". Forbes. Retrieved July 12, 2021.
  34. ^ "Vlad Tenev". Forbes. March 28, 2022.
  35. ^ "100 Most Powerful People in Business". Fortune.
  36. ^ Castellanos, Martina (September 9, 2025). "The 10 Youngest Billionaires On The 2025 Forbes 400 List". Forbes.
  37. ^ "Call9: Modernizing Emergency Care". Center for Health Technology Hunter College. May 15, 2019. Retrieved March 23, 2022.
  38. ^ Roberts, Jeff John; Royle, Oriana Rose (July 30, 2024). "The education of Robinhood's Vlad Tenev". Fortune. Retrieved July 19, 2025.
  39. ^ Gravesq, Ginny (January 24, 2024). "Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev Works Out for a Balanced Life". Men's Health.
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