Private securities markets have boomed in recent years, meanwhile, the number of publicly listed firms have been on the decline. This is largely due to the onerous cost and ongoing burden of becoming a public company – this and the fact there is an ocean of money interested in private securities.
EquityZen is a secondary marketplace for private securities. Frequently, shares in promising private firms are being sold by early employees or other insiders seeking liquidity prior to an initial public offering or another exit opportunity. The only caveat is you must be an Accredited Investor – a term that may be changed by Congress later this year.
Today, EquityZen is reporting that it will boost exposure to these private securities by sharing them with Yahoo Finance, a popular platform for investors in public markets.
According to EquityZen, Yahoo Finance will display its ticker symbols, private market comparables, sector data, and more on its individual private company pages, index pages, and Private Markets Hub.
Atish Davda, CEO at EquityZen, says the partnership is a huge leap forward in making private markets more accessible to the broader public.
“At EquityZen over the last 10 plus years, we’ve seen the private markets become the proven home of innovation. Our goal has always been to arm both investors and shareholders with the information, data, and tools needed to make smart investment decisions in private companies,” said Davda. “Through our partnership with Yahoo Finance, an even broader set of investors will now have access to EquityZen’s proprietary private market data, derived from over 45,000 private market transactions that we’ve enabled in nearly 500 pre-IPO companies since 2013.”
Tapan Bhat, President and General Manager of Yahoo Finance, says the partnership will allow investors to view both public and private securities data in one place.
“As companies stay private longer, this is undoubtedly an emerging sector that shouldn’t be ignored and, together with EquityZen, we look forward to unlocking even more opportunities for investors moving forward.”
As more investors become aware of the opportunity to invest in private securities, this should provide more opportunity and access to more individual investors.
EquityZen’s platform offers investment minimums for as little as $5,000 for qualified individuals while supporting trades for institutional investors as large as over $20 million.