Fintech Public.com Set to Buy HyperCharts, Hire Galileo Russell
- Investing app Public.com has bought stock-data visualization site HyperCharts.
- The acquisition brings HyperCharts’ fundamental, company-specific data to the Public app.
- Public’s co-CEOs said the deal was also a bid for HyperCharts’ talent.
The social-oriented investing fintech Public.com has kept busy over the past 12 months, and it doesn’t plan on stopping now.
In February 2021, the startup announced a $200 million Series D round led by venture heavyweights Tiger Global, doubling Public’s valuation to $1.2 billion.
Public began publishing data on special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, in May in an effort to quantify — and simplify — for its customers a surge in blank-check dealmaking.
In the past year, Public has also grown the number of people on its app by 700%, tripling its headcount in the process.
On Thursday, Public announced its first acquisition as a company, purchasing financial data visualization site HyperCharts. The deal is the latest sign of maturation for Public as it looks to build out both a set of investing products and a pool of talent as it competes in the crowded market that is serving retail traders.
Founded in 2019, Public offers trading tools for stocks, crypto, and funds as well as a social-investing service where customers can share their trade ideas and follow other investors within the Public community. HyperCharts pulls the most relevant, fundamental data from earnings statements and charts them for users with the goal of providing insight and analysis beyond typical share-price movement.
According to Public’s co-CEO Leif Abraham, the acquisition of HyperCharts will provide Public’s customers more granular, relevant information on the companies in which they invest. The data will be available in the future through the app’s individual stock pages.
“By understanding business strategies, that informs your investing. That’s such an important piece, but also very unique to every single business,” Abraham told Insider.
Abraham declined to disclose the terms of the deal, which has closed, but said that the transaction was driven internally without involvement from outside banks and advisors. There will presently be no changes for existing users of HyperCharts, and the website’s data will be brought into the Public app over time.
The deal for HyperCharts is also a bid for talent
Jannick Malling, Public’s other co-CEO and its cofounder, told Insider the deal for HyperCharts was built on a long relationship with HyperChart’s own cofounder, Galileo Russell.
Russell is an investing personality in his own right. His Tesla-focused YouTube channel, HyperChange, counts more than 160,000 subscribers. He first became well-known through a Twitter exchange with Elon Musk in 2018, one that ultimately allowed Russell to ask the Tesla CEO a question during one of company’s quarterly earnings calls that year.
Russell, Malling said, was one of the first users of Public.com, and the acquisition of HyperCharts will now see a prominent voice within the retail-investing community join the social-investing app’s team.
“We’ve known each other for a while and similarly we’ve always admired [Russell’s] approach to understanding companies, to helping people build literacy around the markets as well as the businesses that make up the public markets,” Malling said.
The bid for HyperCharts, echoed Abraham, was also one to bring Russell to Public. “Whenever you have an opportunity to strike great talent, you should strike,” he said.
