SharesPost
SharesPost (Forge Global, Inc.) is a regulated private market platform that operates a FINRA/SIPC-member broker-dealer enabling accredited investors, institutions, and employees to trade shares in approximately 200 pre-IPO companies, supported by proprietary pricing, data, and index products.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2009
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount51–100
- GTM typeB2B and B2C
- OfferingDigital Commerce or Content
What SharesPost does
SharesPost, now operating as Forge Global, Inc., is a regulated private market platform that enables buying and selling of pre-IPO company securities. Founded in 2009 and headquartered in San Francisco with offices in New York, London, and Berlin, the company operates a licensed broker-dealer (Forge Securities LLC, FINRA/SIPC member), an SEC-registered investment advisor (Forge Global Advisors LLC), a trust company (Forge Trust Co.), and a lending subsidiary (Forge Lending LLC). It serves accredited individual investors, institutional asset managers and hedge funds, family offices, venture capital firms, wealth managers/RIAs, private companies, and employee shareholders.
The platform is built on a proprietary pricing engine — Forge Price™ — that calculates daily indicative prices for approximately 200 pre-IPO companies using on-platform secondary activity and aggregated public data. The product suite follows a platform-plus-modules architecture: Forge Marketplace and Forge Pro provide self-serve and institutional trading, respectively; Forge Data and Forge Price deliver analytics and pricing; Forge Private Market Index, Accuidity Private Market Index, and Thematic Baskets provide benchmark, basket, and thematic exposure; Forge Liquidity Programs administers company-sponsored tender offers; and Forge Trust offers a Self-Directed IRA for alternative assets.
Forge generates revenue through three streams: transaction and trading fees on secondary trades routed through its broker-dealer, recurring subscriptions for data and index products, and professional services fees for company-sponsored liquidity programs. Go-to-market combines product-led growth for individual investors via the self-serve marketplace, enterprise field sales for institutional clients and data subscriptions, and channel partnerships with private companies and venture capital firms for liquidity mandates. Pricing is quote-based and not publicly disclosed.
SharesPost firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- SharesPost
- Legal name
- Forge Global, Inc.
- Website
- https://SharesPost.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2009
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 51–100 employees
- Short description
- SharesPost (Forge Global, Inc.) is a regulated private market platform that operates a FINRA/SIPC-member broker-dealer enabling accredited investors, institutions, and employees to trade shares in approximately 200 pre-IPO companies, supported by proprietary pricing, data, and index products.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
SharesPost industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Private Market Brokerage & Securities Trading
- NAICS
- Investment Banking and Securities Intermediation (523150)
- SIC
- Security Brokers, Dealers & Flotation Companies (6211)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Private Client Custody & Brokerage (Execution, Reporting, Safekeeping) (FSAAABAN)
Keywords
Where SharesPost is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices4 records
Markets served
SharesPost business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B and B2C
- Offering type
- Digital Commerce or Content
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Others
Revenue model
- Transaction/Trading Fees: Forge acts as a licensed broker-dealer (Forge Securities LLC, Member FINRA/SIPC) facilitating secondary trades in private company securities. Revenue is generated through transaction fees on trades executed on the Forge Marketplace and Forge Pro platforms.
- Data & Index Subscriptions: Forge monetizes its proprietary pricing data (Forge Price) and analytics (Forge Data) through data subscription products. The Forge Private Market Index and Accuidity Index serve institutional clients as managed investment products.
- Liquidity Program Services: Forge designs and administers company-sponsored liquidity programs (tender offers, customized programs) that enable employee shareholders to monetize equity. These programs generate fee revenue from corporate clients.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Transaction based/ take rate | Pay-as-you-go | Forge Marketplace - Individual Investors |
| Subscription | Annual | Forge Pro - Institutional Trading |
| Subscription | Monthly | Forge Data & Price - Data Solutions |
| Other | Monthly | Forge Trust - Self-Directed IRA |
Go-to-market motion4 records
Distribution channels6 records
Marketing channels6 records
SharesPost product offering
Product offeringCore offering
SharesPost operates a regulated online marketplace and brokerage platform for buying and selling shares in pre-IPO and private companies. The platform provides a self-serve marketplace for individual accredited investors (Forge Marketplace), an institutional brokerage tool (Forge Pro), proprietary daily indicative pricing for approximately 200 private companies (Forge Price), private market analytics (Forge Data), benchmark indices, and company-sponsored employee liquidity programs including tender offers, all facilitated through FINRA/SIPC-licensed subsidiaries.
Product overview
Forge is a unified private market platform that enables buying and selling of private company shares. The platform operates as a platform-plus-modules architecture, combining the core trading marketplace (Forge Marketplace for individual investors and Forge Pro for institutional traders) with complementary data and index solutions (Forge Price for daily indicative pricing on ~200 pre-IPO companies, Forge Data for market analysis), specialized index products (Forge Private Market Index, Forge Accuidity Private Market Index, Forge Thematic Baskets), and ancillary services (Forge Liquidity Programs for employee equity programs and Forge Trust for self-directed IRA investing).
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Forge Marketplace: Platform for individual investors to buy and sell private company shares
- Forge Pro
- Forge Price
- Forge Data
- Forge Private Market Index
- Forge Accuidity Private Market Index
- Forge Thematic Baskets
- Forge Liquidity Programs
- Forge Trust
Products and services
- Forge Marketplace Self-serve online marketplace for individual accredited investors to discover pre-IPO private company investment opportunities and buy or sell private market shares.
- Forge Pro Institutional brokerage tool for trading private company securities at scale, designed for asset managers, hedge funds, family offices, VC firms, and wealth managers.
- Forge Price Proprietary indicative price data product providing daily pricing for approximately 200 pre-IPO companies, derived from secondary platform activity and publicly available datapoints.
- Forge Data Web application for analyzing private markets, providing actionable views of share prices, valuations, trends, and proprietary data insights.
- Forge Private Market Index Benchmark index for monitoring the performance of actively traded private companies in the private market.
- Forge Accuidity Private Market Index Institutionally-managed diversified basket of private companies offered to Qualified Purchasers (QPs) for index-based private market investment exposure.
- Forge Thematic Baskets Thematic basket products providing focused exposure to specific private market sectors or trends.
- Forge Liquidity Programs Company-sponsored liquidity solutions for private companies, including tender offers and customized employee equity programs designed to retain and reward employees.
- Forge Trust (Self-Directed IRA) Self-Directed IRA trust product enabling tax-advantaged investment in private companies and other alternative assets.
Quantifiable outcome
- Forge Price provides pricing for approximately 200 pre-IPO companies with daily updates
Companies that use SharesPost
Customer profileSegments6 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
SharesPost technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature7 records
SharesPost partnerships and signals
Strategic signalScale indicators3 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
SharesPost competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- EquityZen: EquityZen operates a private shares marketplace connecting individual accredited investors with company-sponsored tender offers and secondary transactions, directly overlapping with Forge Marketplace and Forge Liquidity Programs.
- Hiive: Hiive is a private securities trading platform serving accredited investors, employees, and institutions with bid/ask price discovery and execution in pre-IPO shares — a head-to-head competitor to Forge Marketplace and Forge Pro.
- J.P. Morgan Private Shares: J.P. Morgan Private Shares (built on the Zanbato acquisition) provides institutional and employee secondary trading in private company securities with the backing of a global investment bank, competing directly with Forge Pro and Forge Liquidity Programs.
Broad incumbents
- Nasdaq Private Market: Nasdaq Private Market is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nasdaq providing end-to-end private company services including secondary trading, tender offers, and equity management, leveraging exchange-grade infrastructure to compete with Forge's marketplace and liquidity programs.
- Morgan Stanley Shareworks / E*TRADE Private Shares (now part of Stock Plan Solutions): Morgan Stanley's equity plan administration franchise handles private company stock administration, tender offers, and liquidity for corporate clients, competing with Forge Liquidity Programs at the enterprise level.
Emerging players
- Carta: Carta is the dominant cap-table and equity management platform for private companies, increasingly expanding into secondary transactions and liquidity solutions, creating overlap with Forge's data and liquidity program offerings.
- AngelList: AngelList operates private market deal flow, rolling funds, and allocation infrastructure, providing a complementary channel for early-stage and private company access that intersects with Forge's seed/angel investor segment and thematic baskets.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
SharesPost social profiles
Digital presenceSharesPost compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance2 records
SharesPost financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
SharesPost leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles1 record
SharesPost subsidiaries and ownership
Company hierarchySubsidiaries4 records
SharesPost funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds4 records
Investors6 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
SharesPost M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about SharesPost
What does SharesPost do?
SharesPost operates a regulated online marketplace and brokerage platform for buying and selling shares in pre-IPO and private companies. The platform provides a self-serve marketplace for individual accredited investors (Forge Marketplace), an institutional brokerage tool (Forge Pro), proprietary daily indicative pricing for approximately 200 private companies (Forge Price), private market analytics (Forge Data), benchmark indices, and company-sponsored employee liquidity programs including tender offers, all facilitated through FINRA/SIPC-licensed subsidiaries.
Is SharesPost a public or private company?
SharesPost is a private company. It is classified as unknown and is currently operating.
When was SharesPost founded?
SharesPost was founded in 2009. It employs 51 to 100 people.
Where is SharesPost based?
SharesPost is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does SharesPost make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Transaction/Trading Fees are the primary driver. The others are data & Index Subscriptions and liquidity Program Services.
Who are SharesPost's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are EquityZen, Hiive and J.P. Morgan Private Shares. Broad incumbents are Nasdaq Private Market and Morgan Stanley Shareworks / E*TRADE Private Shares (now part of Stock Plan Solutions). Emerging players are Carta and AngelList.
Does SharesPost have an API?
No public API is recorded for SharesPost.
What industry is SharesPost in?
SharesPost's product category is Private Market Brokerage & Securities Trading. Its primary akta.pro industry code is FSAAABAN, Private Client Custody & Brokerage (Execution, Reporting, Safekeeping). Its NAICS code is 523150 and its SIC code is 6211.