Big companies used to treat retail investors as an afterthought—now, they are at the IPO table
Source: Fortune ·
Robinhood’s name among the underwriters for Oura’s IPO is the latest example of retail investors growing influence.
From the source
Good morning Term Sheet readers, it’s finance editor, Jeff John Roberts, pinch-hitting for Allie. If you look closely at the tombstone for fitness ring maker Oura’s IPO, you’ll see something unusual. You might have to squint, but there at the bottom, as the 18th of 18 underwriters, is an unfamiliar name: Robinhood, the app once known as a place for kiddies to YOLO trade, which is now sitting at the table with the likes of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan. The Oura public offering itself, which Allie described this month as the year’s hottest imminent IPO, was suddenly postponed on Tuesday (more on that below), but that does nothing to undercut the significance of Robinhood’s role. The company’s underwriter debut is a big deal since it marks the latest milestone in an accelerating trend of the last five years: Retail investors taking on a major role in capital markets. The trend took off in 2020 when a subset of bored young people, shut in by the pandemic, decided to blow…