Morgan Stanley has entered into an agreement to acquire EquityZen, a private‑shares platform headquartered in New York that connects investors with private company shares.
EquityZen, founded in 2013, has about 50 employees, 800,000 registered users, and has processed more than 49,000 transactions across more than 450 private companies.
The acquisition expands Morgan Stanley’s private‑markets ecosystem, adding cap‑table management, tender and liquidity programs, and secondary trading to its wealth‑management suite. It will give wealth clients additional liquidity options and broaden access to private shares, while providing issuers and employees with streamlined operational processing.
The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals, and is expected to close in early 2026. The deal value has not been disclosed, but Morgan Stanley expects to incur about $100 million in integration costs over the next two years.
The acquisition marks the first significant deal under CEO Ted Pick, who became CEO in January 2024 and Chairman in January 2025. It signals a strategic push into the growing private‑markets space, where the value of private capital assets reached an estimated $22 trillion in 2024 and companies are staying private longer.
EquityZen’s model prioritizes issuer control over share trading, a feature that aligns with Morgan Stanley’s goal of deepening relationships with private companies and enhancing its “Morgan Stanley at Work” offerings.
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