Chamath Palihapitiya's SPACs will offer retail investors a way into its IPOs through SoFi's platform
- Retail investors will be able to buy into IPOs of Chamath Palihapitiya's blank-check companies.
- Regulatory filings stated 5% of shares of the SPACs would be made available on SoFi's platform.
- SoFi went public with a Palihapitiya-backed SPAC last month.
Retail investors will be able to buy into the initial public offierings of four blank-check companies run by "SPAC King" Chamath Palihapitiya.
The four special-purpose acquisition companies, listed as Social Capital Suvretta Holdings Corp. I, II, III, and IV, will make 5% of shares in the initial public offerings available to retail investors through SoFi's online trading platform, according to Wednesday filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The filings said the IPOs would be among the first offered on the SoFi platform, and risks may come with that, "including risks related to the technology and operation of the platform, and the publicity and the use of social media by users of the platform that we cannot control."
SoFi, which is listed as an underwriter on each of the IPOs, has said recently it hopes to make IPOs more available to retail traders, Bloomberg reported.
Last month, the company went public with one of Palihapitiya's many blank-check companies, Social Capital Hedosophia V.
Shares of the four SPACs are set to sell for $10 apiece. According to the filings, retail investors who buy into the stock will be charged a $50 fee if they sell shares within 120 days of the IPO.
Palihapitiya is a big name in the retail-investor community, as other companies he's taken public via SPAC have joined the meme-stock ranks.
Clover Health, a medical insurance provider that went public via SPAC earlier this year, for example, rallied more than 80% in one day of trading Tuesday thanks to hype from investors on popular Reddit threads like Wall Street Bets. Space-tourism company Virgin Galactic, another meme stock, also went public with a Palihapitiya-backed SPAC.
Last month, investing app Robinhood unveiled its plans to let retail investors buy into IPOs. The service, called IPO Access, was an effort to "democratize" offerings and allow individuals, alongside institutional investors, to buy shares of a company before they start trading on open markets. Since then, Robinhood users were able to buy into medical scrubs-maker Figs Inc.