2026 is the year of the initial public offering (IPO) resurgence. After hitting a high of 1,035 IPOs in 2021 during the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) craze, there were only 181 the year after when the S&P 500 lost almost 20% of its value in 2022. Since then, there have been limited high-profile IPOs, until recently.
2026 has already seen the two largest IPOs ever. Space Exploration Technologies debuted with $86.7 billion raised, while just a few weeks later, South Korean memory company SK Hynix raised $26.5 billion. On the heels of that, the artificial intelligence (AI) company Anthropic, maker of the Claude large language model (LLM), plans to go public by the end of October. According to reports, it’s aiming to raise up to $100 billion.
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Just in time, fintech powerhouse Robinhood Markets (NASDAQ: HOOD) has been approved by regulators to start underwriting stocks, and it just got its first job.
More power to retail investors
Robinhood was the first trading platform to offer fee-free trades, starting a revolution for retail investors. Today, fee-free trades are the norm. Robinhood has remained the home for retail investors who band together to spark change, like they did last year with Opendoor Technologies.
Management is committed to breaking down barriers in finance, and it rolls out new products all the time. “Robinhood exists to make everyone an owner,” CEO Vlad Tenev said on the second-quarter earnings call. It offers IPO access to its users, and it was one of the five platforms chosen for retail investor access to the Space Exploration Technologies IPO in June. At that time, Robinhood received regulatory approval to become an underwriter. “We intend to be disruptive in this space,” Tenev said.
Underwriting is the process of preparing a company to go public, including preparing all regulatory filings, helping set a price, buying the stock to sell to the public, and other activities. Most companies have a lead underwriting institution, plus others that help market and sell the stock.
Robinhood secured its first underwriting role for fitness-tracking ring company Oura, which filed to go public last week. It was listed last, behind 17 other underwriters led by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan Chase, but it opens up a new addressable market for the financial disruptor.
