EquityZen Inc., is a rapidly growing marketplace for late-stage private technology companies to receive investments. It provides accredited investors, wealth advisors, and institutional money managers access to private markets. The company announced the closing of a new financing round led by Draper Associates, bringing the company’s outside financing to $6.5 million. Tim Draper, the legendary venture capitalist who was an early investor in Hotmail, Skype, and Tesla, runs Draper Associates.
“The IPO market is no longer feasible. Why would any company want to throw away $5 million per year to comply with all those regulations? Or subject themselves to the scrutiny of an increasingly litigious public shareholder base that usually includes a class action lawyer trawler? The private markets are opening up and EquityZen is a great solution to bring liquidity to private companies that want to keep growing without being saddled with the overregulation and fear that comes with being a public company,” said Tim Draper, Managing Partner of Draper Associates.
“Core to our mission is the belief that to foster robust, liquid secondary markets, you need the buy-in of the company whose shares are being transacted. This influences every aspect of how we’ve built the business and is proven by the 70+ companies we’ve successfully helped address liquidity needs,” said Shriram Bhashyam, EquityZen’s Co-Founder and Head of Shareholder Relations.
“EquityZen brings private markets to the public. Our platform serves over 15,000 qualified investors from more than 30 countries, spanning high-net-worth-individuals (HNWI), wealth advisors, and institutional money managers. We have successfully completed transactions in more than one-third of the largest 50 unicorns in the US, including AppDynamics, which was purchased by Cisco Systems just prior to its planned IPO,” said Phil Haslett, EquityZen’s Co-Founder and Head of Investments.
Analysts and market experts will be on the lookout for every step that EquityZen takes post this fundraising round.
Megha Shah for TechFunnel.com
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