SecondMarket, Inc.

NASDAQ Private Market is an American SaaS company that provides transaction software to private companies and investment funds looking to do tender offers or share buybacks. The company also has a trading business arm for buying and selling illiquid assets, including auction‐rate securities, bankruptcy claims, limited partnership interests, private company stock, in public companies, structured products, and whole loans. In the early days of the company a major source of business came from its platform for trading shares of Facebook and other in-demand startups.

SecondMarket Solutions changed its name to NASDAQ Private Market after being acquired by NASDAQ in a joint venture with SharesPost. In October 2015 NASDAQ took full ownership of NASDAQ Private Market. Prior to using the name SecondMarket the company was known as Restricted Stock Partners, Inc.

SecondMarket was founded in 2004 by Barry Silbert to provide liquidity for in public companies. Beginning in early 2008, SecondMarket expanded into other asset classes—first auction‐rate securities, then bankruptcy claims, limited partnership interests, structured products (MBS, CDO, ABS),whole loans, private company stock, government IOUs and bitcoins.

In 2007, the company raised an undisclosed amount of Series A financing from venture capital firm Pequot Ventures. In February 2010, the company raised US$15 million in Series B funding to aid its expansion into Asia. In November 2011, the company announced that they had closed a US$15 million Series C round, led by The Social+Capital Partnership. The last round of investment valued SecondMarket at US$200 million, up from a valuation of about US$150 million set in the previous round in February 2010.