Born in 1984/1985 to Gujarati immigrant parents, Baiju Bhatt grew up in Poquoson, Virginia, in a household where science was part of daily conversation. His father worked at NASA Langley Research Center, a detail that quietly but powerfully shaped Bhatt’s imagination. Rockets, satellites, and engineering challenges were not distant abstractions—they were real-world pursuits discussed around the dinner table.
For young Baiju Bhatt, space was not fantasy. It was possibility.
His academic path reflected this scientific curiosity. At Stanford University, Baiju Bhatt earned a bachelor’s degree in physics, followed by a master’s degree in mathematics in 2008. Stanford was more than an academic institution; it was a meeting ground of ambition and innovation. It was there that he met Vlad Tenev, the future co-founder of Robinhood.
Few partnerships in fintech would prove as consequential.
Baiju Bhatt: Robinhood – Redefining Access to Finance
In 2013, Baiju Bhatt and Vlad Tenev co-founded Robinhood with a radical premise: what if stock trading didn’t cost anything? At the time, commission-free investing seemed implausible. Traditional brokerage firms relied heavily on trading fees. But Baiju Bhatt saw a structural inefficiency—and an opportunity to level the playing field.
When the Robinhood mobile app launched in 2015, Baiju Bhatt focused intensely on product and design. He believed financial tools should feel intuitive, elegant, and empowering rather than intimidating. In the early days, he personally sought feedback from students, testing features face-to-face to refine the user experience.
That obsessive attention to design paid off. Robinhood earned an Apple Design Award in 2015, validating Bhatt’s conviction that finance and usability could coexist.
As funding accelerated, so did the company’s valuation. By May 2018, a major funding round valued Robinhood at $6 billion, propelling Baiju Bhatt into billionaire status. Yet his influence extended beyond wealth. Robinhood helped spark a broader retail investing movement, introducing millions of first-time investors to the markets.
In November 2020, Baiju Bhatt stepped down as co-CEO and transitioned into the role of Chief Creative Officer. By March 2024, he exited his executive role entirely, though he remained on the board. His next chapter was already forming—one that would take him far beyond financial markets.
Aetherflux: Turning Science Fiction into Strategy
In October 2024, Baiju Bhatt emerged from stealth mode with a new venture: Aetherflux. This time, his mission was not democratizing investing—it was democratizing energy.
The concept sounds futuristic: place solar panels in low Earth orbit, harvest uninterrupted sunlight, and beam that energy back to Earth using infrared lasers. But space-based solar power is not new. The idea traces back decades and even appears in the 1941 short story “Reason” by Isaac Asimov.
What makes Baiju Bhatt’s approach different is his insistence on commercial execution. He argues that old scientific ideas sometimes stagnate not because they are impossible, but because they lack entrepreneurial urgency.
Aetherflux plans to launch its first satellite by late 2025 or early 2026. The initial mission aims to demonstrate long-distance power transmission using largely commercially available components—an approach that contrasts with historically massive government-led research programs.
Baiju Bhatt’s broader vision resembles the distributed network model pioneered by SpaceX through Starlink: a constellation of satellites working in coordination with portable ground stations. As satellites move across orbit, they can transfer energy seamlessly between receiving stations on Earth.
The early applications may include delivering power to remote or strategically critical locations. Over time, Baiju Bhatt envisions a distributed energy infrastructure capable of electrifying apartment complexes, isolated communities, and even ships crossing oceans.
Baiju Bhatt: Investing in the Space Ecosystem
Baiju Bhatt’s commitment to space innovation extends beyond Aetherflux. He has invested in companies such as Reflect Orbital, which aims to use orbital mirrors to redirect sunlight toward solar farms at night, and Apex, a manufacturer of satellite buses.
This pattern reveals something deeper about Baiju Bhatt: he gravitates toward infrastructure—systems that underpin other systems. Whether financial rails or orbital energy grids, he focuses on platforms that empower broader ecosystems.
Recognition and Influence
Baiju Bhatt’s impact has earned widespread recognition. In 2017, he appeared on Fast Company’s list of Most Creative People. In 2018, he was named to Fortune’s 40 Under 40.