Monark's B2B Private Markets Rail
Ben Haber, CEO of Monark, on building the DTCC for the private markets
This reveals that Monark is trying to win private markets by owning the plumbing, not by building another destination app. Instead of paying to attract investors one by one, it plugs into brokerages and wealth platforms that already control the customer relationship, cash balances, and account experience. That gives Monark a larger starting distribution footprint, which matters because issuers care less about appearing on one new storefront than about reaching many existing brokerages through a single integration.
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In practice, the brokerage keeps the user. An investor stays inside an existing app, uses cash already sitting in the brokerage account, passes suitability checks, and gets the position reported alongside public holdings. That is a very different workflow from D2C alt apps that require a separate signup, separate funding flow, and a second portfolio to monitor.
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This model also changes the issuer pitch. Monark is not asking a fund or SPV manager to list on a new marketplace with uncertain demand. It is offering access to a network. That is the same core logic that helped iCapital become valuable to wirehouses and asset managers, by acting as one integration point between many distributors and many products.
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The tradeoff is that distribution leverage compounds only if the integrations become deeply embedded. Monark has expanded through partners like ViewTrade and clearing relationships, while larger incumbents like iCapital are pushing deeper into onboarding, KYC, and embedded workflows. That makes control of the infrastructure layer the real competitive battleground, not the end investor brand.
The next phase is a race to become the default private markets rail inside brokerage and advisor software. If Monark keeps adding custodians, clearing firms, and issuers faster than platforms build these tools themselves, its B2B distribution strategy can turn scale on the demand side into better inventory, better economics, and eventually a stronger network around trading, reporting, and custody.