Your Entry into Investing in Private Companies as an Accredited Investor

Not traded on a public exchange. No guarantee you can sell when or at the price you want. Holding periods can be long.

Private companies have fewer reporting requirements than public companies. Financial information available for analysis may be limited.

Secondary market prices are driven by supply and demand. They may not reflect the company’s actual financial condition.

Some companies never IPO or get acquired. You can lose your entire investment.

Every SecondMarket trade requires issuer approval. The company may decline, restrict, or exercise right of first refusal.

Private stock transactions have tax implications. Consult your own tax, legal, and financial advisors before investing.

An accredited investor is an individual or entity that meets specific financial thresholds set by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). For individuals, the most common qualifications are: annual income exceeding $200,000 ($300,000 jointly with a spouse) for the two most recent years, or a net worth exceeding $1,000,000 excluding your primary residence. Holders of certain FINRA licenses (Series 7, Series 65, or Series 82) also qualify. The accreditation requirement exists because private company stock carries higher risk and lower liquidity than public securities, and the SEC wants to ensure participants have the financial sophistication to evaluate those risks. NPM verifies accreditation during onboarding.

On SecondMarket, individual accredited investors can buy private company stock by creating a free account, completing accreditation verification, and browsing the secondary marketplace. Once active, you can place buy orders on the order book, respond to existing seller offers, match directly with standing offers, or negotiate with counterparties through the platform’s negotiation tracker. You can also invest through NPM Funds for managed exposure to a specific pre-IPO company. SecondMarket’s patented settlement technology handles documentation, company approvals, and share transfer once terms are agreed.

Minimum trade sizes on SecondMarket vary by company, transaction type, and investment structure. Direct share purchases and NPM Fund investments may have different minimums. SecondMarket’s marketplace is designed to be accessible to individual accredited investors, not just institutions — contact our team for current thresholds and available opportunities for specific private companies.

Nasdaq Private Market, operates through NPM Securities, LLC — a registered broker-dealer. The platform is SOC 2 certified. Nasdaq Private Market has facilitated billions of dollars in secondary market transactions across 700+ private companies. Every trade on the platform requires company approval, and the settlement infrastructure is patented. Transactions occur through a regulated broker-dealer framework.

Nasdaq Private Market’s SecondMarket platform connects individual accredited investors to a global secondary marketplace for private company stock. After creating your free account and verifying accreditation, you can browse hundreds of pre-IPO companies, review proprietary pricing data (Tape D), place buy orders, negotiate with sellers, or invest through NPM Funds. The platform provides institutional-grade data, a regulated trading venue, and patented settlement technology — the same infrastructure that institutional investors use, now accessible to qualified individuals.

SecondMarket’s secondary marketplace features hundreds of orders in private companies across technology, artificial intelligence, fintech, healthcare, defense, space, and other highgrowth sectors. Trending companies on the platform include SpaceX, OpenAI, Databricks, Anduril, Stripe, Ramp, Canva, Discord, Rippling, and many more. Availability changes as new companies are added and existing inventory shifts. Create a free account to browse the full marketplace and set up watchlist alerts.

Direct share purchases on SecondMarket give you actual ownership of the underlying private company stock. You hold the shares, you control when you want to place a sell order. NPM Funds are professionally managed investment vehicles that each provide exposure to a specific preIPO company through a fund structure. Funds typically offer lower minimum investment thresholds and simplified administration — you invest into the fund, and the fund holds the shares. Some investors use both approaches — buying direct shares in companies where they want full control of their position, and investing through NPM Funds when they want a simpler path into a specific company.

Secondary market pricing for private company shares is driven by supply and demand among qualified buyers and sellers. Prices are established through negotiations between counterparties or through matched orders on SecondMarket’s order book. The price you see may differ from the company’s most recent 409A valuation or last funding round price — sometimes higher, sometimes lower, depending on market conditions and investor sentiment. SecondMarket provides Tape D pricing data, including historical trade prices, active bid/ask levels, and mutual fund marks, to help you assess fair value. Past pricing is not a guarantee of future values.

The timeline for private stock transactions depends on several factors, including company approval processes, documentation requirements, and share structure complexity. On average, a trade on SecondMarket takes 30 to 60 days from the time buyer and seller agree on terms to final settlement. Some transactions close faster, while others — particularly those requiring board approval or involving complex equity structures — may take longer.