Robinhood Opens US IPOs to UK Retail Investors With No Commission

The company announced Monday that UK customers can now request shares in US IPOs at the offer price before trading commences. This service joins Robinhood's existing crypto trading feature, which was added through Bitstamp in August. Robinhood stated it works with a UK public offer platform provider but did not name the partner.

Customers will submit requests through a general investment account, separate from the stocks and shares ISA Robinhood UK launched in February. The app allows users to access prospectuses and US filings for each asset. Robinhood noted that UK access to IPOs has historically been limited to high-net-worth individuals and large institutions.

Regulatory Changes

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) introduced a regime in January that enables companies to sell shares to a broad investor base, including retail clients, without requiring a regulated market listing or full prospectus. This regulatory change has facilitated UK retail participation in major US offerings.

Market Response

In June, UK investors purchased approximately $364 million of SpaceX stock during its Nasdaq IPO, with Marex Financial running the retail offer across eight platforms including AJ Bell, CMC Markets and eToro. More than 100,000 UK investors expressed interest in participating.

Robinhood's US IPO access program, dating back to 2021, has worked on over 50 offerings and reached millions of US customers. The company cautioned that IPO share prices can be highly volatile, noting SpaceX fell about 32% from its June peak within two weeks, though it remained above the $135 offer price.

Anthropic has named six UK platforms for its planned retail offer coordinated by RetailBook, though Robinhood is not among them. At least four platforms appear in both the SpaceX and Anthropic groups, including eToro, Interactive Brokers, AJ Bell and Interactive Investor.