Forge completes merger to fuel the new era of private markets
Today marks a new era for the private markets as Forge and SharesPost officially complete our merger. Together, under the Forge brand, we’ve created one of the largest private securities marketplaces in the world, bringing liquidity and transparency to global pre-IPO companies and investors at scale.
It’s a transformational moment for the private markets as unicorn companies increasingly look beyond traditional channels to fuel growth and innovation and to incentivize employees -- and as investors find opportunities on both sides of the trade, buy into high-growth private companies or seek early liquidity from shares they already hold.
More and more high-growth unicorns like Palantir are exploring alternative exit strategies including direct listings and SPACs. Companies are looking for options outside of traditional IPOs -- attracted to various features that range from no or shorter lockups, quicker timelines to exit, and retaining more upside for stakeholders. And as more companies pursue these alternate exits, Forge is well positioned to equip companies with the pricing and trend data they need, the robust technology and the expertise to set themselves up for successful exits -- whichever avenue they choose.
Forge has facilitated thousands of transactions resulting in more than $7.4 billion in private market transaction volume. Forge serves a customer base of more than 1 million and has hundreds of unique issuers that have seen trading activity on our platform. We’re assisting thousands of institutions, family offices, investors, and shareholders with their private market investment needs, and offering end-to-end investment support including custody.
Not only does this merger further strengthen Forge’s comprehensive and scalable trading platform, it will expand our database of rich transaction history and consequently solidify our role as a leading source of historical private market trade data. Along with our rich data, we have an incredible team with deep expertise in facilitating private market transactions, and we have the platform that makes accessing and trading in this once-elusive asset class a frictionless experience.