Otis

Otis operates a website and mobile app that lets retail investors buy and sell fractional ownership shares in cultural assets, including contemporary art, sneakers, handbags, watches, skate decks, comic books and sports memorabilia. New offerings are released as "drops," and the platform also runs a secondary market where shareholders can trade individual shares after an initial lockup period of roughly one to three months. Minimum investment is $10, and the platform is open to non-accredited as well as accredited investors.

Investors receive a membership interest in an LLC that owns the underlying collectible, with a separate sub-series used for each item rather than a separate special-purpose entity per offering; each series is treated as its own legal entity under Delaware law. Offerings are made under SEC Regulation A+ (Tier 2), which requires registration with the SEC and detailed offering circulars and financial disclosure. Otis states it intends to hold assets for three to five years before reselling, and assets are screened against criteria such as cultural significance and supportive macro trends using a combination of quantitative analysis and category expertise. Some assets are displayed at the company's gallery in the East Village in New York, where Otis has also run curated exhibitions and events.

Founding story

Otis was founded by Michael Karnjanaprakorn, who previously co-founded the education company Skillshare.

Business model

Otis acquires collectibles and art, securitizes them into fractional shares sold to retail investors under Reg A+, and operates a secondary trading market for those shares.

Otis charges a sourcing fee of 0-10% on offerings plus an additional 1% of invested capital to cover its broker-dealer fee, and retains 10% of profits when an asset is resold before distributing the remainder to shareholders. Otis also purchases at least 2% and up to 19.99% of each offering itself at the same price offered to shareholders.

Traction

The platform launched with a painting by Kehinde Wiley and expanded to works by Kaws, Takashi Murakami and Virgil Abloh, Nike Air Mag sneakers, a Hermes Birkin bag, a 1978 Rolex Daytona 6265 Big Red and Supreme skate decks. By late 2020, offerings spanned active drops plus previously sold assets tradable in the app.

Latest developments

The withotis.com domain now resolves to Public.com, a New York-based multi-asset investing platform offering stocks, bonds, treasuries, options, crypto, ETFs and AI-driven investing features.