Private Markets, Angel and Secondary Investing, Sacra

Sacra

Private Markets, Angel and Secondary Investing

Bringing transparency to private markets so investors, founders, and employees can build on conviction. Sacra delivers deeply researched insights on the private companies shaping tomorrow's markets. By surfacing the data, context, and operator perspective that are missing from private markets today, we help secondary buyers and sellers price equity accurately and unlock liquidity for the people building these businesses.

Private Capital Markets

<ul><li>Over the last decade, we’ve gone from 90% of companies blocking secondaries to 10% as both employees and VCs increasingly seek liquidity—with VCs now accounting for roughly a third of all secondary volume as they sell down stakes to return capital to LPs.</li><li>Fragmentation in the marketplace—with supply-and-demand splintering between individuals &amp; institutions and through overlapping layers of SPVs and brokers—has become the biggest bottleneck on liquidity in the secondary market today, distorting signals around price and creating confusion for buyers, sellers, and issuers alike.</li><li>As programmatic trading added liquidity to public markets in the early 2000s, private secondary markets like EquityZen are unlocking liquidity by breaking the dichotomy between institutional investors and accredited retail investors, stitching together institutional blocks with individual orders and turning fragmented supply and demand into executable flow.</li></ul>

Over the last decade, we’ve gone from 90% of companies blocking secondaries to 10% as both employees and VCs increasingly seek liquidity—with VCs now accounting for roughly a third of all secondary volume as they sell down stakes to return capital to LPs.Fragmentation in the marketplace—with supply-and-demand splintering between individuals &amp; institutions and through overlapping layers of SPVs and brokers—has become the biggest bottleneck on liquidity in the secondary market today, distorting signals around price and creating confusion for buyers, sellers, and issuers alike.As programmatic trading added liquidity to public markets in the early 2000s, private secondary markets like EquityZen are unlocking liquidity by breaking the dichotomy between institutional investors and accredited retail investors, stitching together institutional blocks with individual orders and turning fragmented supply and demand into executable flow.

Atish Davda, CEO Of EquityZen, On The Biggest Bottleneck In The Secondary Markets

<ul><li>PreStocks raised a $2.1M seed round led by Republic Capital, bringing total funding to $3.2M over two rounds.</li><li>PreStocks operates a B2C tokenization platform that transforms illiquid private equity exposure into tradeable digital assets.</li><li>PreStocks can expand beyond individual company tokens into tokenized exposure to private equity funds, venture capital portfolios, and sector-specific baskets.</li></ul>

PreStocks raised a $2.1M seed round led by Republic Capital, bringing total funding to $3.2M over two rounds.PreStocks operates a B2C tokenization platform that transforms illiquid private equity exposure into tradeable digital assets.PreStocks can expand beyond individual company tokens into tokenized exposure to private equity funds, venture capital portfolios, and sector-specific baskets.

<ul><li>The EU loosening restrictions on on-chain stock trading and the SEC signalling its new-found enthusiasm for tokenization, along with more consumer-friendly crypto wallet UX and now near-zero transaction fees on Solana & Ethereum, have kicked off the tokenization of equities—starting with public companies, with Coinbase & Kraken launching always-on, fractional blockchain versions of Apple and Tesla stock that can be traded 24/7 outside of the U.S.</li><li>To tokenize private stock, a special purpose vehicle (SPV) buys up the underlying shares of e.g. OpenAI or Canva—or acquires an interest in an SPV that does—and then a blockchain token is issued that represents a proportional, non-voting interest in that SPV, enabling investors to get exposure to private stocks without needing issuer cap-table approval.</li><li>With different approaches fragmenting along regulatory regimes and blockchains, Republic operates in the US under Reg CF rules that cap investments at $5K and enforce a year-long lockup, while in Europe, Robinhood’s tokens (under MiFID-II) trade only on Robinhood’s L2 blockchain and can’t be traded to other wallets or platforms, while PreStocks’s Solana tokens (under Reg S) can flow into any Solana exchange, wallet, or DeFi app.</li></ul>

The EU loosening restrictions on on-chain stock trading and the SEC signalling its new-found enthusiasm for tokenization, along with more consumer-friendly crypto wallet UX and now near-zero transaction fees on Solana & Ethereum, have kicked off the tokenization of equities—starting with public companies, with Coinbase & Kraken launching always-on, fractional blockchain versions of Apple and Tesla stock that can be traded 24/7 outside of the U.S.To tokenize private stock, a special purpose vehicle (SPV) buys up the underlying shares of e.g. OpenAI or Canva—or acquires an interest in an SPV that does—and then a blockchain token is issued that represents a proportional, non-voting interest in that SPV, enabling investors to get exposure to private stocks without needing issuer cap-table approval.With different approaches fragmenting along regulatory regimes and blockchains, Republic operates in the US under Reg CF rules that cap investments at $5K and enforce a year-long lockup, while in Europe, Robinhood’s tokens (under MiFID-II) trade only on Robinhood’s L2 blockchain and can’t be traded to other wallets or platforms, while PreStocks’s Solana tokens (under Reg S) can flow into any Solana exchange, wallet, or DeFi app.

Xavier Ekkel, Founder Of PreStocks, On 24/7 Tokenized pre-IPO Stock

<ul><li>EquityZen raised $6.5 million in total funding through 2017, with their most recent Series A round of $3 million led by Draper Associates in July 2017.</li><li>EquityZen is a two-sided online marketplace that connects employees and early shareholders in late-stage private companies who want liquidity with accredited investors seeking pre-IPO exposure.</li><li>The platform has grown to 710,000+ registered users as of March 2025, benefiting from the SEC's 2024 broadened accredited investor definition that enlarged the addressable US investor pool by approximately 13%.</li></ul>

EquityZen raised $6.5 million in total funding through 2017, with their most recent Series A round of $3 million led by Draper Associates in July 2017.EquityZen is a two-sided online marketplace that connects employees and early shareholders in late-stage private companies who want liquidity with accredited investors seeking pre-IPO exposure.The platform has grown to 710,000+ registered users as of March 2025, benefiting from the SEC's 2024 broadened accredited investor definition that enlarged the addressable US investor pool by approximately 13%.

<ul><li>Velvet raised a seed round in 2020, with investors in the company including Winklevoss Capital, Material V, Singularity Capital, Atma Capital, IronPine, Alumni Ventures, and Arieli Capital.</li><li>By automating what Velvet claims is 80% of the workflow from initial pitch deck review to investment decision, the software allows smaller investment teams to evaluate more deals while maintaining thorough due diligence standards.</li><li>Velvet's partnership with Templum for secondary trading creates opportunities to earn transaction fees on private share trades rather than just SaaS subscriptions.</li></ul>

Velvet raised a seed round in 2020, with investors in the company including Winklevoss Capital, Material V, Singularity Capital, Atma Capital, IronPine, Alumni Ventures, and Arieli Capital.By automating what Velvet claims is 80% of the workflow from initial pitch deck review to investment decision, the software allows smaller investment teams to evaluate more deals while maintaining thorough due diligence standards.Velvet's partnership with Templum for secondary trading creates opportunities to earn transaction fees on private share trades rather than just SaaS subscriptions.

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Workflow software for private fund managers to onboard and verify investors at scale

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Atish Davda, CEO Of EquityZen, On The Biggest Bottleneck In The Secondary Markets

You started EquityZen back in 2013, just after the eruption of secondary market activity around pre-IPO Facebook. What was the original insight...

Sacra

Primer: PreStocks - 03 Aug 2025

Platform for trading shares of top pre-IPO companies with unmatched liquidity, speed, and simplicity

Sacra

Xavier Ekkel, Founder Of PreStocks, On 24/7 Tokenized pre-IPO Stock

Before PreStocks, you were a software engineer at Canva. Did your experience at Canva inspire you to start PreStocks...

Sacra

Primer: EquityZen - 14 Jul 2025

Marketplace for buying and selling pre-IPO shares in late-stage private companies

Sacra

Primer: Velvet - 02 Jun 2025

AI copilot for private market investors to automate investment processes, harness data, and accelerate due diligence

Sacra

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