Investing platform Public.com has launched fractional bond trading, allowing investors to buy and sell corporate and Treasury bonds in smaller denominations. The company claims to be the first to introduce real-time fractional trading for stocks and is now pioneering this approach in the debt securities market.

The new offering enables users to invest in bonds for as little as $100, significantly lower than the typical minimum investment requirements in the bond market.

Public.com Introduces Fractional Bond Trading

Currently, Public.com offers over 100 fractional bonds on its platform, with plans to expand the selection in the future. The platform also presents a variety of tools to help investors navigate the bond market, such as AI-powered bond search, a screener, and detailed bond information pages that provide key financial data for corporate bonds.

Public.com has also introduced a liquidity score from 1 to 5 for all bonds on the platform, with fractional bonds receiving a score of 5, indicating high liquidity compared to other bonds available.

To further support investors in their bond investing journey, Public.com has developed educational resources, including a center that offers content on bond fundamentals and strategies and a podcast covering macro news that impacts the bond markets.

Encouraging investors to allocate capital to fractional bonds, Public.com refers to a Bloomberg article from March, which suggested that investing in corporate bonds is the safest it has been in nearly a decade.

Benefits of Fractional Bonds

The introduction of fractional bond trading comes amid improving corporate debt ratios and the potential for interest rate cuts later in the year, increasing investor interest in the bond market. By offering the ability to purchase bonds in smaller, whole-dollar amounts, Public.com aims to make fixed-income securities more accessible to a broader range of investors.

Traditionally, retail investors have faced several challenges when investing in bonds, including the lack of mobile-friendly platforms, high minimum order quantities, limited liquidity, and difficulty accessing relevant data to make informed investment decisions. Public.com’s fractional bond trading seeks to address these pain points by providing a user-friendly, mobile-optimized experience with a focus on discoverability.

Public.com's Challenges in the UK

In 2023, the zero-commission stock trading platform from the United States sought to expand its operations into Europe. The startup, valued at $1.2 billion and based in New York, considered potential European acquisitions despite unsuccessful negotiations to acquire Dutch competitor Bux. This initiative led to an announcement in July 2023 that Public.com would launch its services in the United Kingdom, marking its first venture into an international market.

However, it became apparent that the company could not sustain its presence in the competitive UK market for long, deciding to exit just eight months after its launch. The situation was exacerbated by Robinhood's recent entry into the local market, which further intensified market competition.

A spokesperson for Public.com confirmed that "with even more accelerated growth in the US, particularly from recent feature launches such as a five percent high-yield account, corporate bonds, and options trading, we decided it's better to focus on our US business for now."