Investment platform Public on Monday announced it has raised $135 million in equity and debt funding as the adoption of AI-powered research capabilities increases sharply.
The funding, described by New York-based Public as a Series D-2, includes $105 million in equity and $30 million in debt, with longtime backer Accel as the lead investor. It became. The five-year-old company has raised more than $300 million in venture funding.
Public’s funding comes at a time of strong investment in developers of AI-enabled asset management tools, a topic we covered this week. So far this year, seed-to-growth-stage investment in wealth management has remained at roughly three-year-old levels, according to Crunchbase data analysis.
In addition to enhancing AI capabilities, many startups are also focused on offering investments in more asset classes and opening historically inaccessible options to a wider public. Masu.
The public is a great example. In 2019, the company launched a commission-free fractional share investment service targeting young, digitally native customers. Over the years, social features, cryptocurrencies, treasuries, and fractional shares of art and collectibles have been added. Recently, the company has also expanded into corporate bonds.
The company reports that its embedded AI research tool Alpha has seen particularly strong growth, with more than 90% of its members now using it.
Like many investment startups, Public sees particularly strong growth potential through intergenerational wealth transfers. The company estimates that by 2045, $70 trillion in wealth will be inherited by the digital native generation, of which $28 trillion will be in the form of stocks and bonds.
According to Publix, digital natives increasingly plan to invest almost autonomously, relying on automated tools to build and follow their portfolios. At the same time, they expect these tools to provide ever more sophisticated and easy-to-understand advice and portfolio tracking.
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