Morgan Stanley has announced its intent to acquire EquityZen, a New York-based platform that facilitates trading in private company shares. The move highlights Wall Street’s increasing interest in private markets and the growing appetite among investors to invest in promising startups ahead of their public listings.
The acquisition marks the first major deal under CEO Ted Pick’s leadership and is slated to be completed in early 2026, subject to regulatory clearance. Financial details of the agreement have not been made public.
Through this acquisition, EquityZen’s platform and technology will be integrated into Morgan Stanley’s operations, strengthening the firm’s capacity to provide clients with expanded access and services in the private equity and pre-IPO market space.
Founded in 2013, EquityZen has completed over 49,000 transactions involving more than 450 private firms and serves a community of over 800,000 registered users. The platform links shareholders of private companies with accredited investors looking to gain exposure to pre-IPO opportunities, an area that has grown rapidly as many startups delay going public.
Jed Finn, head of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, said “uniquely address[es] 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.”
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Finn added that this collaboration “brings an institutional-grade infrastructure to a marketplace that hasn’t always been easy to navigate for buyers or sellers and certainly not for the issuers.”
The acquisition follows a surge in investor interest for pre-IPO shares, especially in fast-growing technology and AI-driven sectors. Recent high-profile listings from companies like CoreWeave and Figma have intensified demand for access to private firms, leading to a notable rise in trading activity on platforms such as EquityZen. Company data shows that EquityZen’s secondary market trading volume more than doubled in the third quarter compared to the same period a year earlier.
“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,” stated, Michael Gaviser, head of private markets at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management.
The deal is also set to offer advantages for private companies and their employees by simplifying how they manage equity and liquidity events. EquityZen’s issuer-centric approach will enable firms to maintain control over the timing and structure of share transactions, while integrating seamlessly with Morgan Stanley’s existing cap table management tools.
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For Morgan Stanley, this acquisition reinforces its broader strategy to strengthen ties with private market participants. It follows initiatives such as its collaboration with equity management firm Carta and the creation of a Founders Specialist designation to better serve entrepreneurs and executives in the private sector.
A Morgan Stanley spokesperson told Bloomberg that the firm anticipates around $100 million in integration expenses tied to the EquityZen acquisition over the next two years.