Forge acquires IRA Services to expand offering for private company shares

Forge, the marketplace for trading private company shares formerly known as Equidate, announced that it will be acquiring custodial trust company IRA Services for a purchase price of $55 million. IRA Services is a trust company that provides custodial services for retirement accounts managed by individuals and mid-to-large sized Institutions. Stripped of financial jargon, the […]

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TechCrunch Conversations: Direct listings

Last April, Spotify surprised Wall Street bankers by choosing to go public through a direct listing process rather than through a traditional IPO. Instead of issuing new shares, the company simply sold existing shares held by insiders, employees and investors directly to the market – bypassing the roadshow process and avoiding at least some of Wall […]

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Tiger Global just invested $18 million in Olo, a low-flying ordering platform for more than 50,000 fast-casual restaurants

Few outside of the food service industry know about Olo a 13.5-year-old, New York-based mobile and online ordering platform for 250 restaurant chains, from Applebee’s to Cheesecake Factory, Chipotle to Denny’s, and Jamba Juice to Chili’s. Tiger Global has been tracking the company’s growth, however. In fact, in a new secondary transaction, Tiger just snapped […]

View More Tiger Global just invested $18 million in Olo, a low-flying ordering platform for more than 50,000 fast-casual restaurants

There’s definitely reason to worry about Brexit, says Accel’s London team; “It’s not just startups; I’m not a U.K. citizen”

Longtime Accel partners Philippe Botteri, Sonali De Rycker, Luciana Lixandru, and Harry Nelis took the stage at Disrupt Berlin earlier today, and unlike many London-based investors, who have downplayed how much Brexit could hurt their local economy, the team was frank about their sundry concerns over what happens if the U.K. leaves the European Union […]

View More There’s definitely reason to worry about Brexit, says Accel’s London team; “It’s not just startups; I’m not a U.K. citizen”

SoftBank’s debt, Ford buys Spin, and Chinese coffee is huge money

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week was a blast. Connie and I were in the studio with our guest, True Ventures’s Tony Conrad, while Danny repped the other side of the country, dialing in from New York. It was another week shaped […]

View More SoftBank’s debt, Ford buys Spin, and Chinese coffee is huge money

In hot market for secondary shares, one player, Equidate, just locked down $50 million in new funding

Equidate, a 4.5-year-old, San Francisco-based marketplace that makes privately held shares available to accredited investors wanting to buy them, is announcing a whopper of a round this morning: $50 million in Series B funding from Financial Technology Partners, Panorama Point Partners, and Operative Capital. The company had earlier raised only very small seed and Series […]

View More In hot market for secondary shares, one player, Equidate, just locked down $50 million in new funding