DTCC for Private Markets

These companies are not selling niche investments, they are selling a new profit engine to brokerages. The pattern across Monark, Zanbato, iCapital, and Alpaca is that each turns a messy asset class into software and workflows a broker can plug in, white label, and monetize without building its own custody, onboarding, subscription, reporting, and settlement stack from scratch.

• Monark and Zanbato attack pre IPO from different angles. Monark is building API rails for brokerages and RIAs to distribute SPVs and eventually trade interests inside its own ecosystem. Zanbato is more institutional, with broker dealers placing large private stock orders and using its market data and execution network.
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• iCapital shows what scale looks like when alt infrastructure becomes a core wealth layer. Advisors use one system to learn about funds, subscribe clients, process KYC and AML, track capital calls and distributions, and report across private holdings. That simplifies hundreds of manager and admin relationships into one integration for a wirehouse or RIA platform.
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• Alpaca is the crypto and brokerage infrastructure analogue. Developers can open accounts, fund them, run KYC, execute equities, options, and crypto, and rely on Alpaca for custody, clearing, and settlement. That makes it a useful comparison because the winning product is not a destination app, it is embedded financial plumbing sold to other platforms.
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The next step is consolidation around whoever becomes the default back end for alternatives inside brokerage and wealth apps. As private credit, pre IPO shares, and other private funds move into mainstream advisor models and self directed apps, the biggest winners will be the infrastructure providers that own integrations, compliance workflows, and distribution on both sides of the market.