Public leverages Moment to deliver industry-first bond accounts and fractional bonds.
Public is a platform for long-term investing that makes markets more accessible, transparent, and engaging for a new generation of investors.
Investors use AI and a vast variety of asset classes, from stocks and bonds to crypto and options, to build portfolios for the long haul. Launched in 2019, Public has been trusted with billions in assets of affluent investors. Headquartered in New York City, it's raised over $400M from investors like Accel and Tiger Global.
THE CHALLENGE
Public's investors wanted access to fixed income, but there was no solution in the market.
In 2022, Treasuries and fixed income broadly were Public's number 1 most requested product, but there was no solution in the market.
This is the first time bonds have been relevant since 2008, but there is now a generation of digitally native investors who expect a fully digital, in-app experience. In 2022, to trade fixed income we'd have to literally pick up the phone and place every trade one at a time, which doesn't scale at all, and that is not the experience retail investors want to have. We were completely blocked off from accessing the entire fixed income market.
THE SOLUTION
95% of Public's bond positions are fractional and Bond Accounts make up 2-3% of all daily fixed income tickets today.
Public was the first retail brokerage to launch fixed income in 2023. 95% of Public bond positions now include a fractional share and Bond Accounts represent 2–3% of all daily retail fixed income ticket volume today.
USE CASE
API-Based bond trading at scale.
Public's Challenge: Retail demand for bonds surged in 2022, but there was no scalable solution for execution, access, or data.
Moment's Solution: Moment built the first API-based fixed income solution, combining execution, reference data, and compliance in a single platform.
Public now trades bonds through Moment's Smart Order Router, which connects to multiple venues and automatically executes at the best price. Moment also powers Public's bond reference data, a critical component for investor decision-making.
We wanted a best-in-class technology solution that was explicitly designed for the 21st century that would allow us to scale rapidly. Moment provides a very comprehensive offering. The first piece is a trading system. We trade bonds through their smart order router, which is connected to a bunch of different venues and executes at the best price automatically. Moment also very conveniently offers bond reference data. Data is crucial for end users to make informed trading decisions. These products tie together in a neat package and allow us to offer more than 1 million bonds.
Integrating with Moment took Public just weeks, for what otherwise would have been a multi-year buildout.
USE CASE
Launching fractional bond investing.
Public's Challenge: Bonds come with high minimums—often $1,000 to $10,000—making them inaccessible to many retail investors.
Fractional equities have existed for many years now. But fixed income is especially in need of fractional investment options, since bonds typically have very high minimums that range from $1,000 to $10,000.
Moment's Solution: Public was the first platform to offer fractional bonds, with $100 minimums. Today, 95% of bond positions on Public include a fractional component.
With Moment's Fractionalization Engine, Public can offer bonds in fractions as low as $100. Today, 95% of Public's positions now include a fractional position.
USE CASE
Launching bond accounts for diversified yield access.
Public's Challenge: Retail investors lacked access to curated, high-yield bond portfolios without meeting steep minimums.
Moment's Solution: Bond Accounts provide investors access to bonds with a 10x reduction from traditional minimums and make up 2-3% of all retail bond tickets today.
Bond Accounts allow investors to potentially lock in high yields of over 7% from a portfolio of ten high-yield corporate bonds with an initial deposit of just $1,000, as opposed to typical investment minimums of $10,000 on other platforms.
There was such great demand for Bond Accounts that the day the product launched, 8% of all tickets for bond trades on that day were from Public's platform. On November 26, 2024, 20% of all US Corporate bond trading that day was done on Public's platform in the bond account. Today, Bond Accounts amount to about 2-3% of daily retail fixed income ticket volume.
THE PARTNERSHIP
Redefining retail bond investing through innovation.
With Moment, Public is redefining what's possible in retail bond investing—from execution to product innovation.
"Something we didn't foresee about this partnership is the very high quality of customers who own and trade bonds," said Nofzinger.
Previously, you could not transfer and hold bonds away from a brokerage platform like Fidelity or Schwab. Just by allowing people to transfer, hold, and trade bonds on the platform, Public has now attracted a much more sophisticated investor base. Without Moment, none of this would have been possible.