The LSE Directory / Retail brokers
Public.com is a New York based, US focused self directed investing app operated by Public Investing, Inc., a FINRA and SIPC member broker dealer. Through one account, members trade more than 9,000 US listed stocks and ETFs, options, and over 40 cryptocurrencies, hold fractional corporate bonds, build Treasury ladders, and earn 3.30% APY on a high yield cash account with FDIC coverage. There is no account minimum and fractional share investing starts at $1. Public differentiates itself by refusing payment for order flow: it dropped PFOF on equity trades in February 2021 and, on options, pays members a rebate of $0.06 to $0.18 per contract based on monthly volume instead of charging a fee, a structure it markets as unusual among US brokers. It has also built out an AI layer ahead of most retail competitors, including an earnings and market research assistant, natural language "Generated Assets" that turn a prompt into a backtested custom index, direct indexing with tax loss harvesting from a $1,000 minimum, and, since March 2026, "Agents" that let a member describe a trading, cash management, or risk strategy in plain language and have it executed automatically inside their account. The combination targets self directed investors who want stocks, options, bonds, and crypto in one place plus automation, positioning Public against both single asset crypto apps and commission free stock brokers that still monetise order flow. Public was founded in 2019 by Leif Abraham and Jannick Malling, who remain co-CEOs, and is headquartered in New York. The company has raised more than $400 million from investors including Accel, Greycroft, Tiger Global Management, and Inspired Capital, and reached a $1.2 billion valuation in a Series D round in February 2021. Its brokerage arm, Public Investing, Inc., is a FINRA/SIPC member; investment advisory products run through the SEC registered Public Advisors LLC; and crypto trading is executed through Zero Hash LLC, licensed by the New York State Department of Financial Services. Public briefly operated in the United Kingdom from mid-2023 before withdrawing from that market in 2024 to focus on its US business, and it has acquired several smaller firms to extend its product line, including the alternative asset platform Otis in 2022 and Alto's crypto IRA business in November 2025. In March 2026, Public rolled out Agents, positioning itself as what it calls the first agentic brokerage: members build an AI agent by describing a strategy in plain language, then review and approve it before it monitors markets and executes trades across stocks, ETFs, options, crypto, bonds, and cash within the platform's own infrastructure, with a full activity log and the ability to pause, stop, or edit the agent at any time.
