A technology fund run by Cathie Wood was a co-investor in Elon Musk’s pricey deal to take Twitter private — and now it’s trying to unload its stake in the struggling social network to retail investors, The Post has learned.
Cathie Wood — a prominent Tesla bull and Musk ally — is partnering with Titan, an investment app that enables retail investors buy into private companies, to sell individual shares in her ARK Venture Fund, which includes a basket of private companies including Twitter, according to an email reviewed by The Post.
“Retail investors can’t just buy the stock on the market anymore,” Titan’s investor relations chief John DeYonker wrote of Twitter, which Musk acquired last month for $44 billion. “But the ARK Invest team was able to negotiate with him for a piece of the company before delisting it.”
Some investors who got the pitch had a different take, guessing that Wood’s bid to sell retail investors a piece of her Twitter investment — a deal which Elon Musk himself admits he overpaid for — is simply a way to clear a bad deal from her books.
“ARK was stupid enough to invest in Elon’s deal and now they’re trying to get retail to buy in,” a person with knowledge of Wood’s investment told The Post.
In the email, Titan lists “pros” of the deal as “Twitter wants to be the digital town square….which could be lucrative” and “Elon is a bold and visionary thinker… whose ideas should reinvigorate the business.”
Titan lists the only “con” as “Many companies are competing for limited attention in the social media/content space.”
Titan is like stock and crypto investing app Robinhood, but instead allows users to buy into unregulated investments like private companies which are typically only accessible to “accredited investors” with a high net worth or specific training.
But one source with knowledge of the deal told The Post it’s “just disgraceful” that anyone would “try to jam Twitter down the throats of retail.”
“These people are trying to scam retail into overpaying for Twitter after Elon admitted he’s overpaying,” one insider told The Post.
The letter concludes by telling retail investors that prestigious venture capital firms like Sequoia and a16z are also part of the deal. One source with knowledge told The Post that a16z, which is a key investor in Titan, helped broker the deal with Cathie Wood which now lets investors buy into her fund of private ventures.
ARK Invest did not respond to a request for comment. Reps for Titan and a16z also didn’t comment.
“People bought something dumb and now they’re trying to pawn it off on even dumber money … and the dumber money is retail,” one indie told The Post.
Wood defended her investment on CNBC on Wednesday, saying is betting on Musk and believes he can turn the social media company into a “super app.”