Industry Updates

SecondMarket to expand further into private company markets over next 6 months

Friday, July 08, 2011

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Opalesque Industry Update – SecondMarket has grown 125% in the first half of 2011, and the firm expects to open yet another swath of companies to investors during the second half of the year. Hedge funds and other firms have been riding the latest tech bubble by utilizing SecondMarket to access equity at start up firms that have received venture capital.

Growing activity in private company investments
With over 67,000 individuals and institutions now on the SecondMarket platform the firm reports” increased engagement by participants in forming trusted investor networks and watching private companies and submitting interests to buy or sell alternative investments.”

In early June, SecondMarket’s Mark Murphy commented to Opalesque that many hedge funds were active in the tech industry stocks, and that “"In Q1 the companies that saw the biggest rate of increase in watchers [firms that SecondMarket users are tracking] were Foursquare, Dropbox, Spotify, Skype and Gilt Groupe.” (Source)

But the firm is also reporting increased activity interest in non-technology industries, and so SecondMarket CEO Barry Silbert announced in the firm’s Q2 2011 Business Update, that “We are continuing to explore the expansion of the private company market beyond venture-backed startups to include a broad array of established private companies. The team has identified a number of non-technology industries in which there is a strong interest for our company-controlled liquidity programs, and we are likely to launch the first liquidity program for an established company in the next six months.”

The Private Company Market team has also added three hires: Arie Abecassis, Matt Shapiro and Taylor Ridgely.

Kirsten Bischoff

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