EquityZen
Marketplace for pre-IPO shares
- 21-100 employees
- Fintech
- B2C
- Marketplace
- Investing
- Trading
- Financial Services
- Financial District, New York, NY
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Company mission
To help shareholders in proven, private tech companies get liquidity for their illiquid company stock while giving investors access to this new asset class.
47% employee growth in 12 months
Our take
EquityZen is a financial services platform connecting investors with employee shareholders at private companies. The former get the opportunity to invest in pre-IPO assets, and the latter get the opportunity to make cash from an otherwise illiquid employment benefit. It’s a model that’s helped EquityZen establish itself as a strong player in the private shares market for nearly a decade now.
Pre-market shares have been hot property in the past, however, some report that a stagnancy in the IPO market has investors taking their interest elsewhere - they don’t want wealth locked into IPOs that may take years to arrive. It’s left EquityZen with a preponderance of shareholders on the platform, and that’s pushing down private share prices.
This, however, may be on the mend - some suggest IPOs are back on the horizon. Moreover, EquityZen sellers are offering some impressive and high demand pre-market shares: think Byte Dance Ltd, and SpaceX. So this will likely insulate the company until demand picks up again.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Benefits
- 401k match
- Strong career progression paths are available for all tracks including individual contributors and aspiring managers
- Stocked fridge, supply of snacks, weekly catered lunch
- Equity
- Flexible paid time off
- Professional development and wellness budget
- Hybrid/Remote work environment for engineering members with an emphasis on work-life balance
- Full employee benefits (health, dental, vision)
Funding (last 2 of 6 rounds)
Jul 2017
$3m
SERIES B
Dec 2016
$1.8m
EARLY VC
Total funding: $13.3m
This company has top investors
Leadership
Atish Davda
(CEO & Co-Founder)Worked as a research analyst with AQR Capital Management, then went on to co-found and serve as CTO at Knolsoft. Held a VP role for product at Ampush, and has spoken and consulted for Dropbox, GeneralAssembly, and Wharton.
Phil Haslett
(Chief Strategy Officer & Co-Founder)Started his career at Barclays Capital in their Proprietary Trading group trading credit and equity derivatives. Subsequently was a Vice President at Pomelo Capital, a NYC-based hedge fund, focusing on capital structure arbitrage.