Forge Global

Forge Global (NYSE: FRGE) is the leading U.S. platform for secondary market trading in pre-IPO private company shares. Founded in 2015 as SharesPost and rebranded after its 2020 merger with Forge, the company went public on the NYSE in March 2022 via a SPAC transaction. Forge's core business is facilitating transactions between existing shareholders of late-stage private companies (typically former employees or early investors looking to liquidate positions) and accredited or institutional buyers seeking exposure to names like SpaceX, Stripe, Databricks, Anthropic, and OpenAI. The platform has facilitated over $15 billion in cumulative transaction volume since inception.

The platform operates through three main access pathways: Forge Markets (direct share purchases for accredited investors, with minimums typically starting at $100,000 per transaction), Forge Pro (institutional trading desk for large block trades), and Forge Intelligence (data and analytics for private market valuations). Forge's revenue model is transaction-fee-based, typically charging 3–6% on each trade, split between buyer and seller. The platform also runs a secondary marketplace for mutual fund exposure to private companies, though retail-accessible exposure remains limited. For most accredited investors, Forge is the most established and liquid option for buying individual pre-IPO shares — though high minimums, regulatory complexity, and illiquidity risk still make it a poor fit for anyone unable to commit capital for 3–7+ years pending company exit.