Success with social trading app
How Leif Abraham became a fintech star in the US
08/16/2023, 08:30 am
Five years ago, Leif Abraham launched the social trading app public.com in the USA. He was able to attract prominent financiers such as skateboarder Tony Hawk and actor Will Smith for the startup. The company is now valued at well over $1 billion.
In Germany, the number of investors is slowly but surely increasing. Young people are increasingly willing to invest in ETFs or stocks. Around 1.7 million investors were between 20 and 29 years old last year. According to Statista, this is an increase of 36.5 percent compared to 2021. One reason for this are apps like Trade Republic or Scalable Capital, which have millions of customers in Germany.
In the US, the market looks different. Here a German is stirring up the neo-broker scene. Leif Abraham moved to the United States just in time for the 2008 financial crisis to start a new life in New York. “It was a ‘scary’ time,” the Hamburg native looks back and remembers colleagues from the advertising industry who suddenly couldn’t access their savings.
Five years ago, Abraham launched public.com, a mix of Trade Republic and investment community, as a social trading app. He was able to attract prominent financiers for the startup – including skateboarder Tony Hawk and actor Will Smith. public.com is now valued at well over $1 billion.
The idea behind the app: users should be able to track the investment decisions made by other people, including celebrities. It’s about understanding trading as a community experience, says Abraham. In this episode of “So techt Deutschland”, the native of Hamburg explains how it works, what the risks are and what the start-up plans to do in Europe.
In “So techt Deutschland” the ntv moderators Frauke Holzmeier and Andreas Laukat ask founders, investors, politicians and entrepreneurs how things are with Germany as a technology location. All episodes can be found in the ntv app, at RTL+ music, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and in the RSS feed. Also at Amazon Music and Google Podcasts you will find it.