Fragmented private secondary market
Andrea Walne, GP at Manhattan Venture Partners, on getting on the cap table
The private secondary market is not one software category, it is a chain of different jobs that pull in opposite directions. Issuers want control and low admin burden. Brokers want high touch workflows for large blocks. Sellers want flexibility on timing and price. Smaller buyers want pooled access. That is why the market has split into marketplaces, issuer run programs, and broker led tools instead of collapsing into one dominant exchange.
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Marketplace players like Forge and EquityZen were built to package smaller employee and early investor sales into structures that let accredited buyers participate without each buyer landing directly on the cap table. That solves access for smaller checks, but it is a different job from running issuer controlled tenders or servicing large institutional block trades.
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Issuer centric platforms like Nasdaq Private Market and Carta are optimized around company run liquidity programs. In practice that means the company sets who can sell, who can buy, how much can trade, and under what rules. That is useful for control and compliance, but it does not naturally cover the off cycle, ad hoc trades that still drive much of the market.
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Brokers remain central because the biggest transactions are still relationship driven. Large funds and family offices usually do not browse listings themselves. They rely on intermediaries to source blocks, filter counterparties, coordinate diligence, and manage negotiation. Platforms that try to remove brokers risk missing the highest value flow, while broker friendly networks can capture more institutional volume.
The next phase of the market is likely to be more connected, not fully consolidated. Winning products will look less like a single exchange and more like shared infrastructure that lets issuers set guardrails, brokers move large blocks, and buyers and sellers transact through the same rails. The platforms that absorb admin work and preserve trust on all sides should take the most volume.