Big Banks Have Always Had First Dibs on IPOs. Wealthsimple Just Changed That.

Getting in on an initial public offering (IPO) at the ground floor has always been a privilege reserved for big banks and wealthy investors. Wealthsimple wants to change that.

The company announced Thursday that Canadian retail investors can now request shares in select initial public offerings through a new feature called IPO Access, available for companies going public on both Canadian and U.S. stock exchanges.

“Access to IPO shares is one of the starkest divides in public market investing,” said Swapnil Parikh, VP of Product at Wealthsimple, on Thursday. “Big institutions get to buy in at the offering price, while everyday investors are excluded. Wealthsimple is making it possible for Canadian investors to participate in IPOs on the same terms, at the same price.”

Here’s how it works: when an IPO becomes available on the platform, clients submit a request for however many shares they want. There’s no minimum, you can request a single share, and no fee to participate. If demand is higher than the shares Wealthsimple has available, allocations are handled through a transparent process disclosed in advance. You could end up with all the shares you asked for, some of them, or none. Either way you’ll find out on the day of the IPO.

Worth noting: Wealthsimple isn’t an underwriter and doesn’t work directly with the companies going public. Instead, investment banks allocate shares to Wealthsimple, which then makes them available to clients.

This new features comes ahead of some hotly anticipated IPOs, expected to come from big companies such as SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI.

One thing to keep in mind is the flipping policy. If you sell your IPO shares within 90 days, you won’t be able to participate in future IPOs on the platform.

IPO Access is available now for new and existing Wealthsimple clients through their account.