Robinhood Markets Inc. is opening up the initial public offering market to mom-and-pop investors just a few weeks before its own listing is expected.

The Menlo Park, Calif.-based brokerage began rolling out its "IPO access" product to customers May 20, with healthcare clothing retailer FIGS Inc. marking the first company to sign onto the platform and offer shares through Robinhood — satisfying a long-standing appetite among individual investors for more access to the high-risk, high-reward IPO market.

"Most IPO shares typically go to institutions or wealthier investors," Robinhood wrote in a blog post. "With IPO Access, everyday investors at Robinhood will have the chance to get in at the IPO price."

FIGS, whose stock is expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange in the coming weeks, said in its registration statement filed May 20 with U.S. securities regulators that it expects 1% of its 25,875,000 class A common shares to be offered through Robinhood's platform.

Robinhood is working with investment banks to receive an allocation of shares from companies such as FIGS that it can distribute to its customers, rather than underwriting the deals itself, as one of its competitors, Social Finance Inc., plans to do. Robinhood's customers will then be able to invest in the offerings at the IPO price, just as a large pension fund or money manager would. That could open up the opportunity for them to cash in on the share price "pops" that companies sometimes see in their stocks on the first day of trading. No minimum account balance will be necessary to participate in the program, the brokerage said.

Customers will not be barred from selling the shares they buy in an IPO through Robinhood. But, if they do "flip" the shares within 30 days of the offering, the customer will be restricted from participating in other IPOs for 60 days, according to Robinhood's website. The product's development was first reported in March by Reuters.

Before SoFi's and Robinhood's offerings, IPO investing has largely been limited to wealthy individuals and well-established institutional investors. Many brokerages require their customers to meet certain benchmarks in order to invest in IPOs, an inherently risky and volatile class of equities. Fidelity Investments, for example, says its Private Client Group customers need to have at least $100,000 in assets to participate in IPOs sponsored by KKR & Co. Inc. or $500,000 to participate in ones sponsored by Credit Suisse Group AG and other underwriters.

Now synonymous with the retail-trading bonanza that has hit markets over the last year, Robinhood itself is expected to begin trading in the public markets soon. The brokerage filed confidentially to go public with the Securities and Exchange Commission in March. Bloomberg News reported May 18 that the offering could take place as early as the end of June.

The product's debut comes in a highly volatile IPO market. The Renaissance IPO ETF, which tracks newly public stocks, has whipsawed in recent days as investors juggled their portfolios. Since April 20, the ETF has fallen by more than 8%.