Next Round Capital Partners

Secondary Market Brokerage / Private Securitiesnextroundcap.com

Next Round Capital Partners is a New York-based secondary market intermediary that provides liquidity for pre-IPO shares in venture-backed companies, connecting founders, employees, and early investors with institutional and accredited buyers across 150+ tracked issuers.

Company typePrivate
Founded2017
HeadquartersNew York, United States
Headcount1–10
GTM typeB2B
OfferingServices

What Next Round Capital Partners does

Next Round Capital Partners is a New York-headquartered private investment firm that operates as a secondary market intermediary for pre-IPO shares in venture-backed companies. Founded by Ken Smythe, the firm connects sellers (founders, employees, early investors) with buyers (institutional investors, family offices, and accredited individuals), focusing on category-defining private issuers such as SpaceX, xAI, OpenAI, Anduril, Databricks, Stripe, and Epic Games. Securities are offered through an unaffiliated FINRA/SIPC broker-dealer, Hollister Associates, LLC, and transaction execution is supported by infrastructure partners including Zanbato and Nasdaq Private Market.

The firm's core product surface comprises two strategies: a Growth Technology co-investment product and a VC Secondaries product that delivers bespoke liquidity solutions. The platform tracks 150+ private companies and serves 500+ investors, with cumulative transaction volume exceeding $2 billion since inception. Marquee transactions include helping a growth equity fund secure over $100 million in SpaceX shares and facilitating approximately $600 million of OpenAI secondary share sales in 2026.

Revenue is generated on a transaction-fee / take-rate basis across deal sizes ranging from $500K to $10M+, with leadership comprising Wall Street veterans and former institutional private-secondaries executives. The firm operates with a lean team (1–10 employees) across New York and San Francisco, using direct institutional sales and inside-sales distribution, supported by thought-leadership content and earned media in publications such as Bloomberg, the New York Times, and Forbes.

Next Round Capital Partners firmographics

Firmographics

Name: Next Round Capital Partners
Legal name: Next Round Capital Partners
Website: https://nextroundcap.com
Company type: Private
Founded year: 2017
Operating status: Operating
Headcount range: 1–10 employees
Short description: Next Round Capital Partners is a New York-based secondary market intermediary that provides liquidity for pre-IPO shares in venture-backed companies, connecting founders, employees, and early investors with institutional and accredited buyers across 150+ tracked issuers.
Ownership category
akta.pro rank

Next Round Capital Partners industry classification

Industry

Product category: Secondary Market Brokerage / Private Securities
NAICS: Miscellaneous Intermediation (52391), Investment Banking and Securities Intermediation (523150)
SIC: Security Brokers, Dealers & Flotation Companies (6211), Investment Advice (6282)
akta.pro primary industry: Venture Capital Secondaries (LP Interests & Direct Secondaries) (FSANAFAJ)
akta.pro secondary industries: Secondaries Fundraising & Liquidity Intermediation (LP Stakes/GP-led) (FSAEALAG), LP Secondaries — Venture Capital Funds (FSAHALAB)

Keywords

Secondary market brokerage
Pre-IPO liquidity
Private securities trading
Venture secondaries
Private share transactions

Where Next Round Capital Partners is headquartered

Location

Headquarters

HQ city: New York
HQ country: United States
HQ region: North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

Next Round Capital Partners business model

Business model

GTM type: B2B
Offering type: Services
Cost components: Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

Secondary Transaction Fees: Facilitates buying and selling of pre-IPO shares in venture-backed private companies, earning transaction fees for matching buyers and sellers in the private markets.

Pricing tiers

Model	Billing	Price
Transaction based/ take rate	Per transaction	Small transactions ($500K - $2M)
Transaction based/ take rate	Per transaction	Mid-market transactions ($2M - $10M)
Transaction based/ take rate	Per transaction	Large block trades ($10M+)

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels3 records

Next Round Capital Partners product offering

Product offering

Core offering

Next Round Capital Partners is a private investment firm and broker-dealer that facilitates secondary market transactions in venture-backed, pre-IPO companies. It connects institutional and accredited investors with founders, employees, and early shareholders seeking liquidity, providing bespoke transaction structuring across private companies such as SpaceX, xAI, OpenAI, and other unicorns.

Product overview

Next Round Capital operates as a unified pre-IPO stock marketplace offering two core investment products: Growth Technology (growth-stage technology investment strategy with strategic acceleration) and VC Secondaries (liquidity solutions for private company shareholders). The platform connects sophisticated investors with venture-backed private companies, providing access to categories including AI, space technology, defense tech, and enterprise software. The company facilitates transactions in leading private companies including SpaceX, xAI, Waymo, Anduril, OpenAI, Databricks, Stripe, Epic Games, and over 40 other private unicorns.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

Growth Technology Growth-stage technology investment strategy that provides capital and strategic acceleration to high-potential companies, with a focus on unlocking liquidity in private markets. Targeted at investors seeking exposure to venture-backed growth-stage technology businesses.
VC Secondaries Liquidity solutions for shareholders, employees, and early investors in high-growth private companies, facilitating secondary market transactions for pre-IPO shares. Designed for venture-backed company stakeholders who need to monetize equity positions before an IPO.
Pre-IPO Stock Marketplace Digital platform enabling institutional and accredited investors to buy and sell shares in elite private companies before their IPO, including SpaceX, xAI, OpenAI, and other category-defining businesses. Connects sophisticated investors with venture-backed private companies across AI, space technology, defense tech, and enterprise software sectors.

Companies that use Next Round Capital Partners

Customer profile

Named customers14 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Next Round Capital Partners technology and API

Technology

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API: No
API docs
API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Next Round Capital Partners partnerships and signals

Strategic signal

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

Hollister Associates, LLCcoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorSecurities offered through Hollister Associates, LLC, a FINRA/SIPC member firm. Next Round Capital Partners and Hollister Associates are not affiliated entities.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Next Round Capital Partners competitors and assessment

Company assessment

Direct peers

SharesPost: SharesPost is one of the original private company secondary marketplaces, operating with a similar business model of intermediating accredited and institutional investor access to venture-backed pre-IPO shares.
Zanbato: Zanbato operates a private securities trading ATS that Next Round already partners with for execution; it directly competes for the same institutional secondary flow in pre-IPO tech and AI names.
Forge Global: Forge is the largest technology-enabled marketplace for private company shares, directly competing with Next Round on pre-IPO secondary transactions in tier-1 venture-backed names including SpaceX, OpenAI, and Stripe.
Hiive: Hiive is an online marketplace for private company shares competing for the same buy-side and sell-side flow in venture-backed secondaries, with comparable deal-size tiers and target investor base.
Linqto: Linqto is a technology-driven private securities marketplace focused on venture secondaries; Managing Director Matt Mindell previously led buy-side trading and deal execution at Linqto, making it a directly overlapping platform.
Nasdaq Private Market: Nasdaq Private Market operates a leading technology platform for secondary trading in private company securities, directly comparable to Next Round's offering; Managing Partner Sharif Khaleel previously led institutional client relationships there.
EquityZen: EquityZen is a long-standing private market investment platform that facilitates secondary transactions in venture-backed companies, targeting institutional and accredited investors with similar transaction-size profiles to Next Round.

Regional players

Moonfare: Moonfare operates a digital private equity and secondary platform primarily serving European institutional and accredited investors; comparable business model but geographically distinct from Next Round's US-centric focus.

Others

SecondMarket: SecondMarket was a pioneer in private company secondary trading (acquired by NASDAQ), establishing the playbook Next Round and similar boutique intermediaries now follow for institutional pre-IPO access.

Broad incumbents

Carta: Carta is the dominant cap-table management platform and has expanded into private market liquidity and secondary transactions through CartaX; while broader in scope, it increasingly competes with boutique intermediaries like Next Round for secondary flow.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

Next Round Capital Partners financial estimates

Financial estimate

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Next Round Capital Partners leadership team

Management profile

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Next Round Capital Partners funding detail

Funding detail

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Next Round Capital Partners M&A and investment

M&A and investment

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Next Round Capital Partners

What does Next Round Capital Partners do?

Is Next Round Capital Partners a public or private company?

Next Round Capital Partners is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.

When was Next Round Capital Partners founded?

Next Round Capital Partners was founded in 2017. It employs 1 to 10 people.

Where is Next Round Capital Partners based?

Next Round Capital Partners is headquartered in New York, United States, in the North America region.

How does Next Round Capital Partners make money?

One revenue line is on record: secondary Transaction Fees.

Who are Next Round Capital Partners's main competitors?

Direct peers on record are SharesPost, Zanbato, Forge Global, Hiive, Linqto, Nasdaq Private Market and EquityZen. Moonfare is listed as a regional player. SecondMarket is listed as an others. Carta is listed as a broad incumbent.

Does Next Round Capital Partners have an API?

No public API is recorded for Next Round Capital Partners.

What industry is Next Round Capital Partners in?

Next Round Capital Partners's product category is Secondary Market Brokerage / Private Securities. Its primary akta.pro industry code is FSANAFAJ, Venture Capital Secondaries (LP Interests & Direct Secondaries), with a secondary code of FSAEALAG, Secondaries Fundraising & Liquidity Intermediation (LP Stakes/GP-led). Its NAICS code is 52391 and its SIC code is 6211.