We raised $65M to change the culture of the stock market
Fifteen months ago, we launched Public.com to reinvent how people experience and invest in the stock market. We pioneered real-time fractional investing, as well as a true social network built upon a stock brokerage. The ability to buy any stock with any amount of money and, in the same place, discuss investments with a diverse community has been core to the growth we’ve captured so far.
Today, we’re excited to announce our Series C financing of $65M. The round is led by Sameer at Accel for the third time in a row, who is joining our board, alongside Alison from Greycroft (former VP Marketing at LinkedIn and CMO at Stripe), and Oliver from Lakestar.
Also participating are all of our existing major investors: Lakestar, Greycroft, Brianne Kimmel’s Worklife, and Shari Redstone’s Advancit Capital.
Additionally, we’re ecstatic to welcome our new investors: Dick Parsons, The Chainsmokers’ Mantis VC, and skateboarding legend Tony Hawk.
Changing the culture around the stock market
The stock market seems scary because its culture is. The communities that have sprung up around it are mostly for traders and therefore tend to be male-dominated, not welcoming of new investors, and short-term focused. This has the effect that they can feel closer to gambling culture than to investing culture.
To truly democratize the stock market, we have to change its culture. With Public we have built a community from the ground up, one that is more welcoming of new investors, is diverse in thoughts and backgrounds, and is made up of 40% women. The latter is not equal yet, but we’re working hard to close the gap for good.
The difference in culture shows. On Public, it’s being smart, thoughtful, and considered that drives engagement — not recklessness.
A different game
We often say that we’re “playing a different game.” Instead of just launching another debit card, we’re rethinking how people experience the stock market. We’re doing this through innovation in technology, UX, and community.
Throughout the year, we launched features like Messages, Long-Term Portfolio, and Safety Labels. We’re focusing on features that help people build their financial literacy, think long-term, and learn what stocks could be riskier while they browse.
We will use these funds to expand on this strategy and can’t wait to share the next wave of features with you.
Community as the moat
When the markets dropped in March, and the lockdowns started, most major brokerages saw a massive spike in sign-ups as a result of it. We didn’t. The reason was simple: We weren’t showing up in search results yet and didn’t have the brand awareness required to capture the traffic.
Instead of harvesting a big influx of users from search engines, we kept focusing on community. As a result, we didn’t see spiky signup patterns, rather we saw steady growth, averaging 30% MoM, with the majority of users joining through their friends.
As the community grew, so did engagement, leading to a DAU/MAU ratio of 50%. Engagement on Public is driven by a thirst for knowledge. 75% of our community are long-term investors, and less than 3% are speculative. Despite being longer-term investors, people still want to learn about their portfolio every day and stay in-the-know of what other people are doing.
We’re building a mass-consumer company. Part of that means ensuring that people from all backgrounds, genders, and cultures can join and feel welcome — regardless of the size of their wallet or their pre-existing stock market know-how. The more people join, the better the community gets. And we see that every single day.
The team had some stellar months, and we couldn’t be prouder of what we’ve built so far. If you want to join us, we’re hiring.
✊💙
Leif & Jannick
Co-CEOs of Public.com
