Public.com On Track To Further Democratize Investing

Following in the footsteps of giants like Robinhood, Public.com is making strides toward making investing more accessible. Since its inception, the company’s mission was ambitious and idealistic: “to open the stock market to everyone by changing its underlying culture.” Thanks to its social network approach to investing, this app is perfectly poised to capitalize on the retail investor trend that has been primed in recent months.

From the beginning, Public.com was created to tackle accessibility and social issues surrounding the stock market. With popular stocks trading at $1,000 per share, and financial literacy difficult to obtain, this company enables users to access fractional shares of companies and ETFs, while connecting a network of investors that can share ideas and increase their knowledge. The goal is to be a social network that creates inclusion for novice investors who may be in need of guidance and community resources. This comes at a pivotal time where the market has seen the impacts, both positive and negative, of retail trading.

As of today, the platform has one million members, and a host of high-profile investors such as Will Smith’s Dreamers VC, Accel, Greycroft, Lakestar, and Youtube’s Philip DeFranco to name a few. To date, the company has raised a total of $310 million in funding. Its most recent funding round, a Se-ries C, saw a $65 million addition to its reserves, bringing up its valuation to $1.2 billion within 18 months. The funding and signups reflect the renewed relevance of this innovation. Social conscious-ness is one of the company’s key drivers, with considerations such as discouraging day trading in the app’s functionality.

The company will use the funding to increase functionality of its app, build in further popular investing options such as cryptocurrency, pre- and post-market trading, recurring investments, and additional infrastructure for growth. Speaking on this, Public.com’s Co-CEO Leif Abraham said, “We are seeing a steady acceleration of interest in the stock market, with topics previously isolated to Wall Street entering the cultural zeitgeist in ways never seen before…This movement has sparked curiosity among millions of people who, for the first time, are looking to learn more and participate them-selves.”

With financial literacy and transparency of community at the core of the company’s motivations, the new generation of investors will likely trade more carefully. If it succeeds, the app will pave the way toward a more conscious democratization of investing and retail trading.