EquityZen is a marketplace for pre-IPO shares, and founders should understand one thing first: it is not a place to raise a primary funding round. It is a secondary market where current and former employees of late-stage private companies sell their vested shares to accredited investors before an IPO or acquisition. So how to get funding from EquityZen depends on who you are: employees and early shareholders get liquidity by selling shares, while companies give their people a path to cash without waiting for an exit.
Founded in 2013 in New York by Atish Davda, Shriram Bhashyam and Phil Haslett, EquityZen was acquired by Morgan Stanley in January 2026, a deal that deepened its institutional backing and preceded a fee cut. It operates as a registered broker-dealer and structures most investments through special purpose vehicle funds: investors buy fund units holding the underlying shares, rather than the shares directly. Its thesis is that the best private companies stay private longer, so investors and employees need a regulated way to transact before a listing.
Thesis, sectors and investment terms
EquityZen does not run a venture fund, so its fund size is not publicly disclosed and the concept does not apply. Its scale is measured in transactions: more than 49,000 company-approved transactions across over 450 companies, and more than $1.5 billion distributed to sellers. Investment minimums on selected deals open at $5,000, with $10,000 to $20,000 the usual floor, and since February 2026 the fee has been 2.5% one time on each side of a trade, down from 5%. All offerings are made under Regulation D and are open to accredited investors only.
Companies that have traded on the platform include SpaceX, Stripe, Klarna and Anthropic, alongside names such as Blue Origin, X and Robinhood. Sectors skew to late-stage technology, including AI, cybersecurity and fintech, plus other high-profile private names. EquityZen also offers single-company funds, multi-company diversified funds and direct share acquisitions for larger check sizes, and it has partnered with Yahoo Finance to widen the information available on private companies.
Programs, perks and partners
EquityZen runs no accelerator or founder programme, because it is a marketplace, not an investor that backs companies at formation. Its product for companies is liquidity infrastructure: it seeks company approval for each sale, manages paperwork and settlement, and wires proceeds once documents are executed. For investors, the platform's value is access to late-stage names at minimums far below the six-figure floors of direct secondary desks, with no ongoing management fee or carried interest on its fund structures.
How to apply for funding
Shareholders start by creating an account on equityzen.com and submitting a sales inquiry, a non-committal target for what they would like to sell. EquityZen then performs a pricing and valuation analysis, confirms investor demand by collecting indications of interest, creates an investment offering, and works with the company directly to seek approval, including any right of first refusal period. Sellers do not need to be accredited investors to sell, but buyers must be. Companies that want to run a structured liquidity programme for employees should approach EquityZen directly about a company-approved sale process.
Why it matters for founders
EquityZen matters to founders less as a source of new capital and more as a retention and hiring tool: when employees can sell some vested shares before an IPO, the pressure to exit early eases and equity compensation feels real. For investors, it is one of the cheapest regulated routes into late-stage private names, but every position is illiquid, speculative and capable of total loss.