Private Market Platforms Pivot Upmarket
Ben Haber, CEO of Monark, on building the DTCC for the private markets
The real constraint was not investor demand, it was economics and asset access. Direct to consumer private markets platforms had to spend heavily to find each investor, then still navigate accreditation checks, manual paperwork, and issuer approvals. That pushed many of them toward wealthier accredited investors and institutions, because a $10,000 investor and a $250,000 investor often create similar onboarding work, but the larger account produces far more fee revenue and makes it easier to win better deals.
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Platforms such as Yieldstreet and CrowdStreet still market broad access, but most core private offerings remain aimed at accredited investors, with typical minimums around $10,000 to $25,000 on Yieldstreet and accredited only access on CrowdStreet. That is lower than traditional fund minimums, but it is not true mass retail distribution.
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In pre-IPO secondaries, the market structure itself pulls platforms upmarket. EquityZen has historically supported smaller buyers through SPVs and tech enabled workflows, but direct share transfers were cited at $200,000 minimums, and the most valuable supply tends to come through issuer controlled programs, large block trades, and institutional relationships.
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This is why the winning model increasingly shifts from building a consumer brand to plugging private assets into existing brokerages, RIAs, and wealth platforms. Those firms already own the client, already paid the acquisition cost, and can spread compliance and service work across a much larger asset base.
The next phase of private markets distribution will look less like standalone apps chasing small investors and more like infrastructure embedded inside advisor and brokerage workflows. As incumbents and large wealth platforms move deeper into alts, distribution will consolidate around the firms that control customer relationships, high value accounts, and repeat access to quality supply.