Draft:Leif Abraham
German-American entrepreneur and fintech executive
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Leif Abraham (born c. 1986) is a German-American entrepreneur and technologist. He is the co-founder and co-chief executive officer of Public.com, a multi-asset investing platform headquartered in New York City.[1][2] He previously co-founded AND CO, a freelancing software company acquired by Fiverr in 2018,[3][4] and Pay with a Tweet, a social payment platform acquired by Hanse Ventures in 2013.[5][6]
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Leif Abraham | |
|---|---|
 Leif Abraham | |
| Born | 1986 (age 39–40) Germany |
| Education | Design Factory International, Hamburg |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur |
| Title | Co-CEO of Public.com |
Early life and education
Abraham grew up in Germany, where he developed an early interest in digital design and technology."Building for Believers: Leif Abraham on Public's Long Game". Designer Founders. February 4, 2026. Retrieved April 16, 2026.</ref> He studied marketing, advertising, and promotion at the Design Factory International in Hamburg.[7]
Career
Advertising and creative work
Abraham began his career in the advertising industry. He worked at the German agency Jung von Matt in Hamburg before relocating to the United States, where he joined Crispin Porter + Bogusky (CP+B) as a creative on campaigns for brands including Activision's Guitar Hero franchise and Best Buy.[8] At CP+B, he contributed to Best Buy's Twelpforce campaign, which won the Titanium Grand Prix at the 2010 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.[9][10]
He subsequently served as a creative director at R/GA in New York, where he worked on campaigns for clients including Mastercard and Nike.[5][8] In 2011, Adweek named him one of the "top 10 most creative minds in digital."[6][11]
Pay with a Tweet
In 2010, Abraham co-founded Pay with a Tweet alongside Christian Behrendt. The platform introduced a social commerce model in which users could access digital content by sharing a post on Twitter or Facebook, treating social media reach as a form of currency.[5][12] The service was adopted by organizations including Cisco, BBC Radio, HubSpot, and Starbucks.[13] Pay with a Tweet was acquired by Hanse Ventures, a German company builder, in 2013.[5][6] The service was later acquired by Aklamio in 2017.[13]
AND CO
In 2015, Abraham co-founded AND CO with Martin Strutz in New York City. The company developed software for freelancers that handled invoicing, time tracking, payments, contract creation, and task management.[3][4] AND CO received venture funding from Thrive Capital, BoxGroup, Red Swan Ventures, and Designer Fund.[3] In January 2018, Fiverr acquired AND CO and made its previously paid tools available for free to freelancers globally.[3][4][14]
Public.com
In 2019, Abraham co-founded Public.com alongside Jannick Malling.[1][2] The platform launched as a commission-free investing app aimed at younger, digital-native investors.[15] In February 2021, during heightened scrutiny of brokerage practices following the GameStop short squeeze, Public became one of the first US brokerages to eliminate payment for order flow (PFOF), replacing it with an optional tipping model.[16][17] The move was cited in Nasdaq's analysis of potential PFOF alternatives.[18]
Later that month, Public announced a $220 million Series D funding round led by Accel, Tiger Global Management, and Greycroft, which valued the company at $1.2 billion.[1] The company's investors have included Accel, Tiger Global, Lakestar, and individuals such as Will Smith's Dreamers VC and Tony Hawk.[1] In December 2024, Public raised an additional $135 million in a Series D-2 round led by Accel, bringing total funding to over $400 million.[2][19]
As of 2026, Public offers investing across stocks, ETFs, options, cryptocurrency, Treasury bills, bonds, high-yield savings accounts, and direct indexing. The platform has introduced Generated Assets, a feature that allows users to create custom index portfolios using natural-language prompts, and has integrated AI-powered research and trading agents, positioning itself as what the company describes as the first agentic brokerage.[2][20]