Accreditation unlocks opportunities

Private market investors include many parties, such as individual investors, venture capital funds, mutual funds, and more. To participate as a buyer in the U.S., the investor must be deemed an “accredited investor”, as defined by federal securities laws.

Qualifying as an accredited investor depends on meeting certain financial or professional thresholds, such as having income over $200,000 ($300,000 with spouse or partner) for the past two years, with a reasonable expectation to have the same in the current year.

Or, an individual can qualify as an accredited investor if they (alone or with a spouse/partner) have a net worth of at least $1 million, not counting their primary residence.

There are additional ways to qualify as an accredited investor. The above are just a couple of common examples.

While there’s no legal requirement to use a broker, many investors—especially individuals—choose to buy private company shares through a private marketplace like Forge.

Private companies aren’t traded on public exchanges, so investing typically involves finding a willing seller and navigating company-specific rules and approval processes. Marketplaces help streamline this by connecting buyers and sellers and managing the transaction flow.

Forge provides insights on 4,700+ companies, with $16.2B+ in transaction volume and 24,000+ trades* completed. Accredited investors can browse opportunities, access real-time pricing insights and complete trades. Specialist support is available if desired, but not required.

*Forge Data as of 3/31/2025.

Pre-IPO investing refers to investing in a company before it goes public and sells its shares on a public stock exchange. Pre-IPO investing can provide new opportunities for investors who believe that a company is poised for growth and has the potential to generate significant returns. However, it can be a high-risk investment, as there is typically less information available about the company's financial performance and future prospects than there would be for a publicly traded company.

Investors who participate in pre-IPO investing often do so through private placements or secondary market platforms like Forge that allow them to purchase shares in the company before it goes public. For more on pre-IPO investing, please refer to our guide for new investors.

Valuing private company shares can be complex since they don’t trade on public markets. Common methods include recent secondary market transactions, active bids and asks as well as 409A valuations—learn more about various pricing signals in this guide. 

Also, the types of securities you hold—common, preferred or options—can have significantly different values. Learn more in our blog “What is the difference between common shares, preferred shares, SPV units and stock options?”.

Forge helps provide visibility into private market pricing by offering recent trade data, indicative bids and asks and historical valuation trends when available. If your company is active on Forge, you may see a range of market activity that reflects real-time investor sentiment. Additionally, shareholders can use Forge Price™—which can offer a more timely and relevant reflection of company value and price discovery. Note that as Forge Price is a backwards-looking metric, it is not necessarily transactable. Explore Forge Price and discover actionable insights by creating an account.

Forge provides transparent and flexible fees, as low as 0% in some instances. The Forge transaction fee for direct secondaries is typically 2-4%. The fee depends on several factors including transaction size, market dynamics, investment types, and customer lifetime transaction volume, among other considerations. For alternate investment structures, the fee can range higher than that of direct secondaries.

As a reminder, Forge does not charge a fee to create an account or to access our marketplace and join our global network of buyers and sellers. Unlike other secondary marketplaces with hidden platform fees or upfront subscription costs, Forge Securities only gets paid upon the completion of a successful transaction.

In certain cases, Forge’s transaction minimum can be as low as $5,000 when investing through a Forge Fund (learn more here). Typically, however, the transaction minimum is $100,000 especially when investing in companies that are in high demand. 

In competitive private markets, larger bids can strengthen your position by signaling demand and seriousness to potential sellers. This may improve your chances of matching, particularly in high-demand companies. Forge also supports partial fills, giving your order more flexibility to transact.