Public.com, a commission-free shares trading platform , has moved beyond the United States to launch its services in the United Kingdom. It is the first international market that the company has expanded.

Public.com Launches in the UK

Announced today (Thursday), the platform is offering access to more than 5,000 US-listed equities to its potential clients in the UK. It will also keep its services commission-free.

“London and the broader UK market has always been the financial epicenter of Europe, so it’s a natural place for Public to start our international expansion,” said Leif Abraham, the Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Public.

“Public has always had European roots: my co-founder and I are both European, and we have a team across multiple European countries, including the UK. We’re excited that now it won’t just be the team in Europe and the UK, but the members we serve.”

A Strategic Expansion

The UK launch looks like it is a part of the company’s wider push to expand services outside the US. Last December, it revealed its intentions to launch services in Europe and was pursuing various licenses, but it did not specify any potential country.

“The UK is an English-speaking market of 70,000,000 people, which makes it a great first market for our first non-US country,” Public’s GM of International, Dann Bibas, told Finance Magnates.

Though the company is focused on offering US stocks in the UK markets, which are its usual offerings, it had to localize its platform to support local payment methods, currency conversion, and onboarding to meet local standards.

Apart from the existing equities offering, Public plans to launch Investment Plans in the UK, allowing its clients to create customized recurring investments.

“For the UK, we are focusing our efforts on US stocks, a demonstrable strength of ours, and will tune into the needs of our new UK customers to continuously build our product suite over time,” Bibas added.

On top of that, he highlighted that the platform is no longer using the controversial payment for order flow (PFoF) model, which came under heavy scrutiny in the US over the practices of its rival platform, Robinhood.

“We make revenue through various ways, from interest on cash to our paid premium services. We went off of PFOF in the US because the incentives you create on your platform attract your customer and user base. We are optimizing for long-term investors looking to try new products and invest for the long haul," Bibas commented.

"We will follow the same model in the UK by being transparent on pricing and fees with our customers. There is no PFOF in the UK (moved away from it in 2012), but we always aim to do what is best for our customers despite the market we’re operating in.”