MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Financial technology company Zanbato, Inc. is pleased to announce that more than 100 brokerage firm trading desks are now using its platform, ZX, to trade private company stock.
“We are honored that leading brokers, from specialist boutiques to global investment banks, are choosing ZX to trade private company stock for their institutional and private wealth clients,” said Nico Sand, Zanbato Chief Executive. “Achieving 100 trading desks at our partner banks and brokerages this year is testament to the growing institutional demand for private company shares, and to the emergence of ZX as their trading venue-of-choice.”
ZX achieves this milestone amid continued growth in private markets. Venture-backed private companies are now valued at more than $2tn in aggregate, having experienced an annualized growth rate of over 40% for the last decade. Against expectation, this growth continued in 2019 and 2020 despite an uptick in technology IPOs. As the asset class has grown, secondary markets have become an increasingly important mechanism for investors to access exposure and liquidity.
While many market observers predicted that private secondary markets would shut down in a recession, ZX transaction volumes grew more than 3x in the last 6 months. Additionally, new broker on-boarding accelerated as traditional brokerages and wealth advisors saw increased client interest in the space.
Launched in 2016, ZX consolidates order books across its member broker-dealers to support improved price discovery and higher execution rates in the highly fragmented private share market. “ZX’s technology provides the most value at scale. As our member base grows, ZX network connection density accelerates,” said Kevin Leung, Vice President of Engineering at Zanbato. “Each new ZX member is a potential new trading counterparty and further enhances the data available to our members.”
“Before ZX, private markets for venture-backed secondaries were deeply fragmented, execution rates were low, and investors suffered from poor visibility into private share supply and demand curves,” Mr. Sand said. “ZX offers unparalleled support for our partner banks as we work together to address the global liquidity gap for private shareholders. We thank all our partners for the trust they have placed in ZX.”
About ZX
Zanbato is a financial technology company established to make private markets more liquid and reliable. Launched in 2016, Zanbato’s ZX platform is an independent, SEC-registered Alternative Trading System that is today the leading inter-broker platform for trading venture-backed private shares. Many of the world’s largest banks and broker-dealers trust ZX for price discovery, liquidity, and trade execution services across private markets globally. To learn more about how to invest, trade, and manage risk with ZX, visit zanbato.com.
ZANBATO and ZX are trademarks of Zanbato, Inc. and are registered in various jurisdictions.
