SecondMarket expands to tech hotbed Israel

Secondary market for alternative assets lets employees trade shares in private companies

SecondMarket, a secondary market for illiquid, restricted and alternative assets, announced Monday morning that it has launched in Israel.

Instead of waiting for an M&A or IPO, Israeli employees can now buy and sell shares they own in a company-controlled environment on SecondMarket. That is, since the company is a registered broker-dealer, all transactions in the marketplace must comply with SEC rules and exemptions.

The decision to expand into Israel had a lot to do with the country’s massive technology industry. Its information technology (IT) sector, for example, is estimated to be a $4.9 billion market in 2010.

“Israel is an entrepreneurial hotbed and we are excited to work with the country’s most dynamic private companies,” said SecondMarket founder and CEO Barry Silbert.  “Our private company market allows companies to provide secondary liquidity to shareholders in a controlled environment where the companies dictate the parameters of the market.  Our model has been extremely successful in the U.S. and we believe it will also resonate in Israel.”

The home of 300,000 technology employees, according to SecondMarket, Israel could potentially boost the marketplace’s audience. Especially considering that technology employees have often worked for multiple companies and collected shares from different sources, Israeli users could find SecondMarket to be an advantageous tool.

Already, the New York City startup boasts a market with 20,000 participants and has processed over $350 million in transactions, including deals in major companies like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.