Republic, the “No. 1 player” in the Global Private Market Investment
The era of investment has begun. Private markets are growing explosively.
It is indeed an era of investment. Since the pandemic, the cryptocurrency market and the stock market are getting more attention than ever before and the value of labor has dropped significantly. We even reached a point where you cannot buy an apartment unit with an average salary no matter how hard you work. This is not just relatable in Korea. America, which was struck hard by the coronavirus, has recently passed the largest stimulus package in history and supplied a large number of dollars to the market. As the dollars are circulating the world economy, the value of scarce assets is exponentially growing. Investors are taking advantage of this opportunity to expose themselves to various assets such as cryptocurrency, stock, and real estate in order to prepare for the upcoming hyperinflation era.
Republic, one of Hashed’s portfolio companies, is an investment brokerage platform that allows individuals to invest in various assets around the world. One can easily invest in competitive products carefully selected by the Republic. The company curates assets with high potential growth to investors such as startups, games, esports, real estate properties, and cryptocurrencies. The private market itself is massive and presents many opportunities for the participants. In 2020 alone, the market itself grew to 6.5 trillion dollars (7,200 trillion won); and the growth rate is more than twice compared to the public market. With more entrepreneurs jumping into the startup ecosystem, one can expect more explosive private market growth.
The private market growth is not going to stop anytime soon.
Lowering the Hurdles of Accessing the Private Stock Market
Unlike public markets, private markets are surrounded by quite complex environments. This makes it very difficult for retail investors to commit their funds. The world needs a better platform that could streamline the whole process with the following features — background check, investor management, privacy protection, security guarantee, dividend insurance, payment, investor reporting, investor education, portfolio management, regulation updates, and so on. Republic team has created a platform that enables investors to easily execute their investments. The platform supports automated stock investment, insurance, portfolio tracking, reporting, tokenization, and so on. Also, it allows cross-border investment either in fiat or in cryptocurrency. Republic also hired US regulation experts to remove any legal issues in using the platform. And, by integrating the platform with banks, credit cards, cryptocurrencies, and pension funds, Republic allows the users to invest in any asset with just a click. Most importantly, investors and companies are directly connected through Republic which allows the two different groups to build trust. As the number of shareholders increases, companies need to adopt an IT platform for more efficient shareholder management. Yet, Republic is evolving as a service that replaces the need of separate IT platforms.
A new way of connecting shareholders and companies: Republic
Until now, Republic as an investment platform has invested in many startups along with renowned venture capitalists. It has built its reputation by investing with the leading US funds such as Founders Fund, Union Square Ventures, Y Combinator, and Social Capital. Investing with these venture capitals means that Republic has introduced stocks with high potential returns to its users. It has brought private stocks in their growth stages such as Carta, SpaceX, and Robinhood. Indeed, these stocks are about to be listed, presenting good investment opportunities for Republic users. With these amazing deals, Republic raised tens of millions of dollars from its users and gave good impressions to private companies.
Republic is growing exponentially. The number of deals it introduces, the number of users, and the number of investments are growing 2–3x each year. Particularly in 2020, Republic became one of the major investment platforms as it raised approximately 200 billion KRW. The good thing about investing through the Republic platform is that users can invest with a small number of funds. On average, a Republic user is investing $376 and is exposed to 2.9 products. Currently, there are more than 1 million active users in Republic. More retail investors are getting drawn into the platform with Republic’s marketing campaigns. If this trend continues, Republic can grow into an investment platform as large as a cryptocurrency exchange or a stock exchange.
The unstoppable growth of Republic
A Platform that Grows with Investors
Another benefit of the Republic is that it allows access to various assets. Recently, Republic has jumped into the metaverse real estate investment. Land sold at metaverses such as Decentraland, Sandbox, and Axi Infinity has already returned a dozen times its investment even though investors are not fully grasping their returns yet. The advanced research of Republic allows its users to invest with low risk. Many applaud Republic’s capacity of finding an investment opportunity at an early stage and creating an investment product.
Republic’s digital real estate investment fund
One of the interesting elements of Republic is its native token called “Republic Note.” The Republic Note token is a medium that returns a part of fees from the investment fund to the token holders. It distributes 25% of the fees from the private platform and 100% of the fees from the public platform to Note token holders. Other benefits include faster information regarding investment opportunities and prioritized execution rights. Note tokens are security tokens issued according to a legitimate procedure and are sold as a bonus to investors or distributed to the investors who executed certain investments. If the number of Note token holders increases, it implies that Republic is becoming the platform that can grow together with its users.
Benefits of Republic Note token
The Future of Private Asset Platform is Bright
In the future, retail investors will continue to use platforms like Republic to find attractive investment opportunities. This is why Hashed has invested both in Seoul Exchange, which trades unlisted stocks in Korea and in Next Unicorn, which provides a network that shares information on startups. Republic as a global private market platform led by a global team will create a huge synergy with Hashed’s other portfolio companies. With the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information, more digital assets will be recognized for their values as assets; and private market platforms will become more popular as more innovative products are introduced to the blockchain world.
Gone is the era of large institutional investors like venture capitals, hedge funds, and banks monopolizing valuable assets. We are ushering in an era where numerous individuals gather to form a community in which assets such as Tesla, Gamestop, and Bitcoin grab the majority’s attention. Republic will establish itself as a symbolic platform that is used daily.
