Which company conducted the first modern initial public offering (IPO) in 1602?

The Dutch East India Company conducted the first modern initial public offering in 1602.

Known in Dutch as the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, or VOC, it was established on March 20, 1602, when the States General of the Netherlands merged several competing trading ventures. Rather than funding each voyage separately, the new company raised permanent capital from a broad pool of investors. Its shares could later be sold to other investors, creating an early secondary market.

The VOC received a 21-year monopoly over Dutch trade in Asia and possessed unusual quasi-governmental powers, including the authority to build forts, wage war, negotiate treaties, and establish colonies. Those powers made it far more than an ordinary merchant business.

A common mix-up is the English East India Company, founded in 1600. It was earlier, but the VOC is generally credited with the first modern issue of publicly tradeable company shares. The company eventually collapsed under corruption, debt, administrative costs, and competition, and was dissolved in 1799.