Robinhood Hands UK Traders a Seat at US IPOs With IPO Access

Eligible Robinhood UK customers can now put in requests for shares of US companies going public, sized at the offering price set before secondary market trading kicks off. The requests cost nothing to make and there are no minimum account thresholds or minimum purchase sizes if shares come through. Certain account types, retirement accounts among them, do not qualify.

A request is not a buy. Robinhood's requests are non-binding, so customers are signaling interest with no promise anything lands in their account. Allocations flow through Robinhood's ties to underwriters, the banks running the deal, and when demand outstrips supply the platform divvies up shares using random or demand-based methods.

The feature is old news in the US, where it debuted in May 2021 with medical apparel maker Figs among the first offerings. Robinhood later turned the tool on itself, reserving up to 35% of its own July 2021 IPO for retail investors. The UK brokerage was announced in late 2023 and fully rolled out by March 2024, offering commission-free trading in thousands of US-listed stocks with no foreign exchange fees or account minimums. By August 2026 the UK platform had added options, futures, margin and crypto trading.

Recent IPO Access deals have leaned on marquee names, including SpaceX in June 2026 and Anthropic in November 2026. For UK retail traders the shift is simple: buying into a US listing at the offering price was previously out of reach. Robinhood itself notes access isn't a win — IPOs can pop above their offering price or sink below it, and rationed allocations mean customers may get a sliver, or nothing at all.