Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Online fundraising, financial services |
Founded | 2016 |
Founder | Kendrick Nguyen, Peter Green, Paul Menchov[1][2][3] |
Headquarters |
Republic is an investment platform headquartered in New York City that allows individuals to invest in startups,[4] growth-stage pre-IPO companies, real estate, video games, and crypto companies (despite the crackdown on fraudulent initial coin offerings in 2018).[5]
Republic was founded by Kendrick Nguyen, Paul Menchov and Peter Green in 2016 as a spin-off from AngelList.[6][7] By July 2021, the company had deployed over $500 million in investments.[8][9]
In November 2020, Republic launched the Republic Cities program in Dallas to fundraise for companies in Dallas from the local community.[10]
In 2021, Everyrealm (at the time, Republic Realm), formerly a metaverse real estate investment channel of Republic, purchased a parcel of virtual land in Decentraland for close to one million US dollars.[11] The lot has turned into a virtual shopping district and houses JPMorgan's lounge.[12]
Republic has its own profit-sharing digital security token, the Republic Note, but has not minted the tokens or made any new developments since launching.[13][14][15]
In October 2021, Republic announced a $150M Series B round led by Valor Equity Partners.[16]
Republic Capital, its venture arm, has invested in companies including Carta, Dapper Labs, Klarna, Kraken, Pipe, and Plaid.
In June 2019, Republic acquired SheWorx, a company that helps female entrepreneurs raise capital.[17] Lisa Wang – the founder – subsequently left Republic.[18]
In April 2020, Republic acquired Fig, a video game crowdfunding platform.[19][20] The first offering from Fig that was co-hosted by Republic was that of Intellivision Amico. Despite its fundraising success – to the tune of $39 million across multiple campaigns (including one on competitor site StartEngine) – it has faced multiple delays and remained in development until July 2022.[21][22][23]
In June 2020, Republic made an acqui-hire for Compound, a real estate investment platform to create Republic Realm.[24] However, the division later spun off and rebranded as Everyrealm.[25] In October 2022, a sexual harassment and racial discrimination lawsuit was filed against Everyrealm and Republic.[26]
In November 2020, Republic acquired certain assets of NextSeed, a local crowdfunding platform.[27]
In December 2021, Republic entered into an agreement to acquire British equity crowdfunding business Seedrs for $100 million in an effort to expand to Europe.[1][2][28] This acquisition faced pushback from regulatory bodies and the Seedrs investor base, citing preferential treatment given to large shareholders.[29]