Morgan Stanley to Acquire Leading Private Shares Platform EquityZen

Morgan Stanley today announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire leading private shares platform, EquityZen. The acquisition enhances Morgan Stanley’s distinctive private markets ecosystem that provides a full suite of services to private companies and their shareholders, including cap table solutions, tender and liquidity programs, direct and co-investment opportunities, and secondary trading. EquityZen’s issuer-aligned model will support the Firm’s efforts to deepen relationships with private companies. This will provide Morgan Stanley at Work participants access to additional liquidity options as well as increase access to private shares for Morgan Stanley’s Wealth clients.

“We are thrilled to welcome the entire EquityZen team to Morgan Stanley,” said Jed Finn, Head of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. “This announcement comes at a critical time in the development of the private markets ecosystem. The combination of EquityZen with Morgan Stanley will uniquely address client needs as companies stay private longer, such as delivering liquidity solutions for their employees and early investors in a seamless yet controlled process of their own design. With EquityZen, we combine our cap table management solutions with a private shares marketplace to deliver end-to-end solutions to our private market company clients.”

The integrated offering will have the issuer at the center of the decision-making, allowing them to have full discretion over when and how their shares trade. EquityZen will serve as a powerful benefit for issuers and their employees, providing streamlined operational processing that is powered by the direct integration with the cap table solution provided by Morgan Stanley.

Since 2013, EquityZen has committed to expanded access to the private markets by connecting retail investors with private company shares. It has over 800,000 registered users and has processed over 49,000 transactions across more than 450 private companies since inception through its scalable, purpose-built technology and infrastructure.

“This deal helps us accelerate our already robust and growing private markets business,” said Michael Gaviser, Head of Private Markets at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. “We are seeing rising interest in private markets exposure across our 20 million clients. EquityZen is the link that connects supply and demand through a seamless, technology-driven solution, broadening the toolset we provide Workplace clients, while expanding opportunities for Advisors and their clients.”