Augment building private stock exchange
Noel Moldvai and Adam Crawley, co-founders of Augment, on software-enabled secondaries markets
This shows Augment trying to become the order book for private stock, not just another broker competing for the same seller. Instead of forcing option exercise firms, brokers, and shareholders into separate funnels, Augment wants them posting live opportunities into one venue where users can compare a sale against financing side by side. That matters because private market trading usually breaks down around fragmented outreach, opaque pricing, and slow execution.
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The practical workflow is simple. A shareholder can see what their shares may fetch in a sale, then also see financing offers from firms like Secfi, EquityBee, or Vested if they want to exercise and keep upside. Listing partner deals on the same screen turns Augment into a decision hub, not just a transaction pipe.
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This partner model also fits Augment's broker friendly strategy. The company seeded its marketplace with independent broker dealers, built for direct counterparty communication, and registered as both a broker dealer and ATS so orders can be posted, matched, and transacted on platform with less manual back and forth.
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The comparison point is platforms that serve one lane of the market. EquityZen is a marketplace for pre IPO shares, while CartaX and Nasdaq Private Market focus more on company run liquidity events. Augment's pitch is that brokers, direct investors, shareholders, and financing partners all plug into the same exchange layer.
If this model keeps working, private market infrastructure will look more like a connected exchange and less like a patchwork of broker calls, PDF workflows, and one off financing offers. The winning platform will be the one that aggregates the most actionable inventory, then turns that liquidity into faster execution and eventually a broader retail style product.