SAN FRANCISCO — Commonstock, which operates a social network for retail investors, has raised a $25 million Series A led by Coatue, with participation from QED, Floodgate, Upside Ventures, Resolute Ventures, Abstract Ventures. Philippe Laffont, Bill Ackman, Ari Emanuel, and Michael Ovitz also joined the round as well as Li Jin of Atelier, Turner Novak of Banana Capital, and Jill Carlson.
Commonstock said will use the funds to further its mission of expanding access to investing knowledge by continuing to build out its platform.
“The era of memestocks has only underscored the need to separate signal from noise when it comes to retail investing,” said David McDonough, CEO and founder of Commonstock. “It’s clear that as more and more people gain access to the promise of capital markets, they need a transparent space to share knowledge and ideate, which is exactly what we’ve built. Our goal is to amplify great knowledge and insights, drawing everyone from the most legendary investors to those wanting to bring their investing skills to the next level. We’re excited to expand our platform to support even more investors and creators.”
Since Commonstock launched out of stealth in August 2020, it has quickly become a hub for retail investors, with more than a billion in assets connected on the platform. Commonstock works by connecting users’ existing brokerage accounts to the app so that they can share their real-time portfolio by percentage (not dollar amount), performance, and trades. Users will get real-time alerts when friends buy or sell, so they can copy each other’s trades and invest together. They also have the opportunity to participate in discussions about investment theses and industry takedowns.
The influence of active retail investors is on the rise, now making up 15% of current U.S. stock market investors. But while technology and lower trading costs have made this possible, retail investors have no more access to investing knowledge than they did a decade ago.
The GameStop craze earlier this year established that there is tremendous value in going online to share investment ideas but more transparency and accountability are needed. By linking user profiles to brokerage accounts that show current performance and investments, the platform aims to establish transparency between what a user is saying and what they’re actually investing.
