Coatue Leads $25 Million Series A in Commonstock

<p><strong><span class&equals;"xn-location">SAN FRANCISCO<&sol;span><&sol;strong> &&num;8212&semi; <u>Commonstock<&sol;u>&comma; which operates a social network for retail investors&comma; has raised a <span class&equals;"xn-money">&dollar;25 million<&sol;span> Series A led by Coatue&comma; with participation from QED&comma; Floodgate&comma; Upside Ventures&comma; Resolute Ventures&comma; Abstract Ventures&period; <span class&equals;"xn-person">Philippe Laffont<&sol;span>&comma; <span class&equals;"xn-person">Bill Ackman<&sol;span>&comma; <span class&equals;"xn-person">Ari Emanuel<&sol;span>&comma; and <span class&equals;"xn-person">Michael Ovitz<&sol;span> also joined the round as well as <span class&equals;"xn-person">Li Jin<&sol;span> of Atelier&comma; <span class&equals;"xn-person">Turner Novak<&sol;span> of Banana Capital&comma; and <span class&equals;"xn-person">Jill Carlson<&sol;span>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Commonstock said will use the funds to further its mission of expanding access to investing knowledge by continuing to build out its platform&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;The era of memestocks has only underscored the need to separate signal from noise when it comes to retail investing&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said <span class&equals;"xn-person">David McDonough<&sol;span>&comma; CEO and founder of Commonstock&period; &&num;8220&semi;It&&num;8217&semi;s clear that as more and more people gain access to the promise of capital markets&comma; they need a transparent space to share knowledge and ideate&comma; which is exactly what we&&num;8217&semi;ve built&period; Our goal is to amplify great knowledge and insights&comma; drawing everyone from the most legendary investors to those wanting to bring their investing skills to the next level&period; We&&num;8217&semi;re excited to expand our platform to support even more investors and creators&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Since Commonstock launched out of stealth in <span class&equals;"xn-chron">August 2020<&sol;span>&comma; it has quickly become a hub for retail investors&comma; with more than a billion in assets connected on the platform&period; Commonstock works by connecting users&&num;8217&semi; existing brokerage accounts to the app so that they can share their real-time portfolio by percentage &lpar;not dollar amount&rpar;&comma; performance&comma; and trades&period; Users will get real-time alerts when friends buy or sell&comma; so they can copy each other&&num;8217&semi;s trades and invest together&period; They also have the opportunity to participate in discussions about investment theses and industry takedowns&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The influence of active retail investors is on the rise&comma; now making up 15&percnt; of current U&period;S&period; stock market investors&period; But while technology and lower trading costs have made this possible&comma; retail investors have no more access to investing knowledge than they did a decade ago&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>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&period; By linking user profiles to brokerage accounts that show current performance and investments&comma; the platform aims to establish transparency between what a user is saying and what they&&num;8217&semi;re actually investing&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;