Public, a stock investing app that allows users to buy fractions of shares, raises $15M Series B led by Accel and Greycroft, bringing total raised to ~$24M
Investing in the stock market can be intimidating for many. It can also be difficult for those who don't have tons of extra cash …
Context & Ripple Effects
Public's fractional-share predecessor Stockpile had already shown investors would fund small-dollar stock buying when it raised a $30M Series B backed by Fidelity's Eight Roads in 2017. Two years later, Public took the same thesis further by adding a social layer to commission-free trading, and Accel and Greycroft led its $15M Series B, lifting total funding to roughly $24M.
The bet paid off fast: within a year Public went on to raise a $65M Series C and then a $220M Series D at a $1.2B valuation, with both original leads following on — making this modest 2020 round the entry point for one of the fastest valuation climbs in retail brokerage.
First-order effects
- Accel and Greycroft get early positions in a retail brokerage they would re-back through the Series C and D, while Public gains capital to scale free trading and fractional shares against incumbents charging commissions.
Second-order effects
- Rival fractional-investing brokers like Stockpile face pressure to match both the zero-commission pricing and the social feed, pushing community features from differentiator to table stakes — a lane later entrants such as Shares explicitly built around.
Third-order effects
- If the funding cadence holds, retail brokerage consolidates around platforms that own the social graph rather than the trade execution alone, with valuations set by user engagement rather than assets under management.
The trend: Retail investing apps are collapsing the gap between trading, fractional ownership, and social networking, with venture capital compressing what was once a decade-long brokerage build into under two years.