Trading app Robinhood has hired former Google executive Aparna Chennapragada as its first chief product officer.
Chennapragada will oversee all product, design and research at Robinhood, which has suffered from growing pains over the last year as its popularity has exploded during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Chennapragada joins after 12 years at Google, where she led product, engineering and design teams, across Google Search, Shopping and AR.
She was most recently vice president for consumer shopping, and the lead for AR and visual search products. Prior to this, she was the technical assistant to the CEO, where she shaped the company’s product strategy.
Says Chennapragada: "I spent my career at Google building products that help billions of people in their everyday lives. So I couldn’t be more excited to join Robinhood and help more people build their financial future and personal wealth."
Robinhood has become the poster child for app-based retail stock trading, becoming one of the world's most popular fintech companies with a valuation well north of $10 billion.
However, in the last year it has suffered outages, got into hot water with the SEC, and recently been at the centre of the Gamestop debacle.
The firm temporarily stopped users from buying dozens of stocks that day traders who use the WallStreetBets subreddit had targeted in a short squeeze assault, prompting lawsuits and the interest of lawmakers.