Embedded Private Investing in Brokerages

This split defines the core battleground in private markets, consumer apps win attention, while infrastructure wins distribution. Platforms like Yieldstreet, CrowdStreet, and Forge package private assets into a destination that people visit on purpose, but Monark is built for the opposite model, putting private assets inside the brokerage or advisor account the investor already uses. That matters because private market investing is still hard to explain, hard to onboard, and expensive to acquire one customer at a time.

• Direct platforms are storefronts. Yieldstreet bundles multiple private asset classes on one consumer app, CrowdStreet gives individuals direct access to private market deals with a strong real estate tilt, and Forge serves pre IPO share trading with a more institutional orientation and larger transaction sizes.
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• The B2B stack is different. iCapital and Monark are built to help advisors, brokerages, and fund managers handle the messy work, onboarding, suitability, subscription documents, money movement, reporting, and custody. In practice, that means the investor often never leaves their main brokerage workflow.
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• That difference changes the economics. Monark describes private assets as a way for brokerages to bring back 2% to 3% commission revenue, versus far less from public market order flow. Consumer platforms must spend to win each user, while infrastructure platforms piggyback on existing distribution and account relationships.
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The market is heading toward embedded private investing, not more standalone apps. As private assets move from niche destination platforms into mainstream brokerage and advisor interfaces, the durable winners are likely to be the companies that make private investments feel operationally as simple as buying a mutual fund, even when the underlying asset is far more complex.