Robinhood To Offer Shares In IPO To Customers First: Report

One of the most talked-about IPOS of 2021 is likely to beRobinhood. The company plans on rewarding customers with early access to the IPO.

What Happened:Robinhood recently filedfor its highly anticipated IPO and now Reuters reports the commission-free brokerage plans to allow its users the chance to buy shares before shares they debut.

Sources told Reuters thatRobinhoodis building a platform that will democratize the IPO process and allow its customers the chance to buy IPOs early, including its own.

AirBnB IncABNB 1.5%offeredits hosts the chance to buy shares at $68 each prior to its IPO. Shares were allocated according to how long a person had been a host.

Why It’s Important:Big funds are typically given first access to allocations of shares prior to IPOs. Retail traders can't buy in until shares debut on the exchange.

The typical first-day pop of IPOs in 2020was 36%, according to Dealogic.

Robinhood has over 13 million users. The platform could use the IPO offering to its customers as an incentive to gain new users or keep its existing ones.