Robinhood Markets Inc., one of the fastest-growing players in the red-hot financial technology segment, has moved a step closer towards going public.

The heavily funded startup today announced that it has appointed Amazon.com Inc. veteran Jason Warnick as its first chief financial officer. Warnick joins Robinhood after a 20-year stint with the online retail giant. He most recently held the dual role of vice president of finance and chief of staff to Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky.

Adding a finance executive to the C Suite is one of the customary steps that startups take before filing for an initial public offering. Earlier this month, Robinhood co-Chief Executive Baiju Bhatt divulged that the plan is to launch an IPO in the “medium- to long-term” but didn’t go into specifics.

The appointment of Warnick comes at a busy time for the startup. In May, Robinhood closed a $365 million investment at a $5.6 billion valuation from a consortium that included big names such as Sequoia Capital, Alphabet Inc.’s Capital fund and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The startup’s namesake stock trading app, in turn, has added 2 million users since the funding round.

One of the keys to this explosive growth is the service’s accessibility. Robinhood doesn’t charge any brokerage fees and instead generates revenue from interest on users’ uninvested funds, plus so-called margin loans that it provides for trades. The startup’s app enables users to trade in stocks, options and other securities, as well as various cryptocurrencies. 

Robinhood’s hiring of Warnick follows just a day after Airbnb Inc. also appointed a former Amazon executive as CFO. The home-sharing giant revealed this month that it’s generating more than $1 billion in revenues per quarter and reportedly hopes to become ready for an IPO as early as mid-2019. Airbnb received a $31 billion valuation after its most recent funding round.  

Photo: Robinhood