Zanbato Sells Execution Not Access
Zanbato
A transaction based model reveals that Zanbato is selling execution, not access. In private stock, the hard part is not getting firms onto a platform, it is getting a real trade through transfer restrictions, issuer approvals, and broker coordination. That is why Zanbato routes institutional orders through broker dealers, makes money when a block actually clears, and ties its economics to liquidity creation rather than to listings or data seats.
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Zanbato sits closer to an interdealer market than a classic exchange. A hedge fund that wants Stripe shares goes through its prime broker, the broker uses ZX, and Zanbato steps in on permissions and workflow. From 2017 to 2020 it processed more than $29B of orders across 500 plus issuers, with average order size of $14M.
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That fee design fits its customer base. Traditional exchange style revenue works when issuers want exposure and investors pay for broad market access. Zanbato serves institutional block trading, where buyers care more about odds of execution, lower failed trade rates, and better price discovery from pooled order flow than about subscriptions.
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The contrast with competitors is concrete. Nasdaq Private Market and Carta lean issuer centric and monetize structured company programs. Forge and EquityZen are better known for smaller or employee led transactions. Zanbato is the broker friendly, institution focused lane, which is why peers repeatedly group it with block trading and market data rather than tender software.
As private companies stay private longer, the winning venues will be the ones that turn messy bilateral stock transfers into something repeatable and fast. Zanbato is positioned to capture that shift by taking a cut of actual flow, and that creates upside if recurring liquidity programs and institutional secondary trading become a normal part of late stage company finance.