First-Ever Copy-Trading Platform dub Raises $17M Seed Round From A-List VCs and Individual Investors

Wunderkind Harvard Dropout Steven Wang Brings Creator Economy to Investing

NEW YORK, Feb. 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- dub, the first copy-trading platform in the U.S., today announced a $17 million funding round from a group of venture capital firms and individual investors including the CEO of Uber and Co-founder of Robinhood.

dub allows everyday investors to replicate the portfolios of emerging investment managers, famed hedge funds, or elected officials with a single tap. dub's affiliated broker-dealer, registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission and member FINRA, helps facilitate copy-trading, a fast-emerging investment practice suited to today's investor.

Tusk Venture Partners led the seed round, which also included investment from Robinhood co-founder Nathan Rodland, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, Apex Fintech Solutions CEO Bill Capuzzi, former Federal Reserve Board of Governors vice chair and TIAA CEO Roger Ferguson, Jr., OneRepublic Front man Ryan Tedder, and an array of notable venture capital and individual investors listed below. The funding also includes a $2 million venture debt facility provided by Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), a division of First Citizens Bank.

dub translates the powerful benefits of the social-media-driven creator economy to investing. Individuals gain access to a wide variety of minds in asset management and bespoke investment strategies. With the simple-to-use dub app, everyday investors can choose to copy portfolios with the same ease of buying a single stock. The same investors, or any individual on dub, can also avail their own investment portfolios to be copied. dub's launch offerings include several proprietary investments strategies built by former hedge fund managers from firms like Millennium, and others shared by Financial Influencers with varying backgrounds and experiences. See the dub app for more details on our early portfolios and their creators.

"A decade from now, instead of picking stocks, we'll be picking people to invest in," said Steven Wang, the 22-year-old founder and CEO of dub. "It's already how my generation is investing, with the rise of social media and commission-free investing. Humans are narrative- and fear-driven creatures. Digitally-native creators have mastered the art of storytelling and are building fervent communities that leverage social accreditation to guide their investment decisions. With dub, we're building the creator economy for finance."

At 17, Wang left high school to found and ultimately sell a VR company, after which, at 18, he joined Apple working on projects including the Apple Watch. He was then admitted to Harvard, where he spent most of his time on the other side of the table, investing in early-stage startups as a Partner at Dorm Room Fund, only to leave school again to found dub.

Steven began dabbling with investing as a second grader, when his immigrant parents loaned him $200 to invest as an education in building wealth. Trading from that point through the meme stock era, he saw how retail investors like him changed how they invest. These insights gave Wang enough conviction to drop out of Harvard and pursue dub full-time. Since then, he's hired a veteran executive team hailing from companies like Affirm, Millennium, Goldman Sachs, Meta and iCapital with decades of experience building and operating licensed financial companies.

"dub's copy-trading platform opens a new frontier in retail investing. As the first broker dealer to offer copy-trading, they are in a position to offer a truly unique product to investors," said Robinhood co-founder Nathan Rodland.

"Steven and the dub team have created a platform where financial creators can share their ideas, demonstrate their investment strategies, and provide retail investors with the information they need to take more agency over their investment decisions," said Jordan Nof, co-founder and managing partner at Tusk Venture Partners.

Seed Investors
Tusk Venture Partners
Slow Ventures
Neo
Scribble Ventures
Alumni Ventures
K5 Global
Graph Ventures
Dorm Room Fund

Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber
Nathan Rodland, co-founder of Robinhood
Bill Capuzzi, CEO of Apex Fintech Solutions
Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., former CEO of TIAA and Chair Vice Federal Reserve
Charlie Johnston, former president of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney
Alex Rampell, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz and co-founder of Affirm
Stephanie Zhan, general partner at Sequoia Capital
Co-Founder of Rocket Mortgage Dan Gilbert's Detroit Venture Partners
Ryan Tedder, music producer and lead vocalist for OneRepublic
Kathryn Haun, CEO and founder of Haun Ventures
Emilie Choi, COO of Coinbase
Lachy Groom, Founder of LFG Capital
Michael Acheson, Founder of Interlaken Capital
Shiva Rajaraman, Chief Business Officer of OpenSea
Ryan Sarver, former general partner at Redpoint Ventures
Dan Nathan, CEO of RiskReversal and CNBC Panelist
Anthony Kontoleon, Partner at Azura
Reza Behforooz, Vice President of Engineering at Google
Steve Nadel, Partner at Seward & Kissel

About dub

DASTA Incorporated ("dub") is the first copy-trading platform in the United States that lets users copy the portfolios of other investors with a single tap. dub's innovative platform gives industry experts, financial influencers, and retail associates with a knack for trading, the ability to share their insights and investment portfolios— all through an easy-to-use mobile platform. Advisory services are provided by DASTA Investment LLC ("DASTA Investments"), an SEC-registered investment adviser. Brokerage services provided by DASTA Financial, LLC ("DASTA Financial"), an SEC-registered broker-dealer and member of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ("FINRA") and Securities Investor Protection Corporation ("SIPC").

SOURCE dub