Top Secondary Market Players
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Forge Markets offers a private stock trading platform that connects accredited investors with high-growth opportunities in private companies. Accredited individuals, who meet specific net worth or income requirements, can explore and invest in private equity through Forge, benefiting from the growth potential of startups and private enterprises.
The bar chart above highlights the increasing activity and participation in private company trading on the secondary market through Forge, indicating their expanding reach and role in facilitating private market transactions.
To sell your private company shares on Forge’s secondary marketplace, you'll need to register and provide details about your shares, including your desired sale price. Once a buyer is found, Forge assists with documentation and seeks company approval for the transaction, which can take 30-60 days and involves a service fee of around 5% of the sale price. Throughout the process, Forge offers broker support to ensure the sale aligns with your financial goals. Some of the pre-IPO companies listed on Forge include OpenAI, EnergyX, Anthropic, Waymo, Groq, xAI etc.
Palico is an online marketplace that allows investors to buy and sell private equity fund stakes in the secondary market. Joining and listing on Palico is free; members only need to complete a KYC check to verify their status as professional investors.
Palico charges buyers a 1% success fee based on the final agreed purchase price, plus any unfunded commitments being transferred in the deal. There is a minimum fee of $15,000 for transactions where the 1% success fee would be less than that amount. Sellers can list their fund positions on Palico at no cost. Some of Palico's clients include Catalus Capital, Multiplicity Partners, Decalia, and Flashpoint, spanning sectors such as technology and financial services.
EquityZen provides access to pre-IPO companies through single company and multi-company investment options, but you must be an accredited investor to participate. EquityZen offers three types of investments: single company, multi-company, and direct share acquisition.
In the single company option, investors become limited partners in a fund that holds shares of one company, making it easier to get approved on the company’s cap table. The multi-company option allows investors to diversify by investing in a fund that owns shares in several companies. Direct share acquisition enables investors to buy shares directly from a company, though it requires a higher minimum investment and ongoing management.
The above diagram shows a private market map of EquityZen which displays 100 private companies, organized by market capitalization, market score, and industry. Each industry is represented by a section, with each box on the map representing a private company. The size of each box reflects the company's market capitalization. Some of the companies mentioned in the above image include Stripe, Databricks, Epic Games, Scale AI etc.
Nasdaq Private Market is a technology-enabled platform that facilitates the trading of private company shares. It provides liquidity solutions primarily for employees, early investors, and shareholders in private companies. NPM is a subsidiary of Nasdaq and is designed to help private companies manage shareholder liquidity through the use of private tender offers, auctions, and other liquidity programs.
It acts as a facilitator for secondary market transactions by offering a centralized, regulated marketplace where private companies can organize liquidity events (such as share buybacks, tender offers) and shareholders (e.g., employees, early investors, LPs) can sell their shares to interested institutional investors.
Nasdaq's company clients come from various sectors such as banks, software, robotics, technology, and business services as shown in the image above, and include companies like Docker, Gympass, Ripple, Coinbase, Via, and Nuro.
Linqto is an investment platform based in the San Francisco Bay Area that enables accredited investors to invest in private-market startups and pre-IPO companies. It makes private investing easier by offering low minimum investments with no extra fees, giving more people access to private companies.
Linqto focuses on mid-to-late-stage tech companies that already generate revenue and have backing from venture capital or private equity. The platform features fast-growing tech companies like Astranis, Ripple, Algolia, SingleStore, Cerebras, and Zipline etc. that are expected to go public or be acquired within five years.
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