Republic is an American investment platform headquartered in New York City that allows individuals to invest in startups, growth-stage pre-IPO companies, real estate, video games, and crypto companies (despite the crackdown on fraudulent initial coin offerings in 2018).[4][5] It allows individuals to invest small amounts of money in these type of investments that are normally reserved for big investors.
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]
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]
^ abButcher, Mike (December 1, 2021). "Republic acquires the UK's Seedrs in $100M deal to push into Europe". TechCrunch. TechCrunch. Archived from the original on May 31, 2022. Retrieved May 31, 2022. Kendrick Nguyen, Republic's founder, said: "We knew international expansion was necessary to achieve cross-bordered participation [...]"
^Geron, Tomio (April 16, 2018). "New Wave of Firms Race to Capitalize on ICO Gold Rush". Wall Street Journal. Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on April 17, 2018. Retrieved November 12, 2022. Despite a potential crackdown on U.S. offerings, many upstart crypto-trading platforms are barreling into uncharted territory
