5

SecondMarket raises $15M at $200 million valuation

Chamath Palihapitiya's Social+Capital Partnership bets on booming alternative-investment marketplace

Financial trends and news by Bambi Francisco Roizen
November 2, 2011 | Comments
Short URL: http://vator.tv/n/2101

(Correction: To reflect the valuation.) 

SecondMarket is busy making news these days. Just one month after holding its own liquidity event on its marketplace, SecondMarket announced Wednesday that it's raising $15 million in a Series C round of funding from The Social+Capital Partnership, founded by well-respected former Facebook executive-turned-VC Chamath Palihapitiya, who will become a board member at SecondMarket.

The valuation is $200 million, the company told us. That's a slightly higher valuation that Chamath originally invested at in late September, when his fund and prolific investor Yuri Milner were investors in a company-wide liquidity event that helped SecondMarket employees liquidate $13 million worth of stock. Ashton Kutcher was another investor in that round.  

NY-based SecondMarket plans to use the funds to expand into new asset classes, and make acquisitions.

(Note: Barry Silbert, SecondMarket founder and CEO, will be speaking at Venture Shift NY this November 17. Hear directly from Barry about how SecondMarket is changing investment opportunities, particularly in private companies. Get your tickets here.)

SecondMarket has certainly been active of late as it ventures into different types of transactions. It now appears that the company may be part of a syndicate of bankers helping to sell Groupon's $11 billion IPO. That's nice additional revenue for them right there. Additionally, the company's private-company trading platform continues to gain momentum. Just last week, SecondMarket released data showing that its private company transactions jumped 75% to $435 million, in the first nine months of this year.

Fueling that activity is interest from asset managers and wealthy individuals interested in consumer Internet and social media companies, like Facebook, Zynga, Twitter and Foursquare, to name a few. 

(Image source: Flickr)

(Full disclosure: Barry Silbert, CEO and founder of SecondMarket, is an investor in Vator)


Related companies, investors and entrepreneurs

5154
SecondMarket
Startup/Business
Description: SecondMarket is the marketplace for alternative investments. It has become the online destination for accessing market data, building you...
33968
Barry Silbert
Founder & CEO,
SecondMarket

Related news


blog comments powered by Disqus
Find your friends' startup new!
Vator is more valuable if you know who's here.
Discover who has a startup and help their success by following their progress!

Featured Stories

Latest company news bites on Vator

Mercy Corps and Startup Weekend have partnered to create a first-of-its kind event focused on solving ...
See more
Xeinge Group - Kevin Rivers (Founder/CEO)
A new social networking service is coming! Get your exclusive invite on Bluurp today! (http://www.bluurp.com) #Bluurp ...
See more
Xeinge Group - Kevin Rivers (Founder/CEO)
A new social networking service is coming! Get your exclusive invite on Bluurp today! (http://www.bluurp.com) #Bluurp ...
See more
Pandora was featured in a article: "Pandora debuts new station to preview upcoming albums" about 13 hours ago
Albums will be available on Pandora Premieres for up to a week before their official U.S. release See more
Wanderful Media was featured in a article: "Wanderful Media gets $9M to expand local ad service" about 21 hours ago
12 powerful media publishers re-invest to get circular dollars online See more