Houlihan Lokey Advises SharesPost

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that SharesPost and Forge Global, two preeminent private securities marketplaces, have merged in a cash-and-stock transaction valuing SharesPost at $160 million. The transaction closed on November 9, 2020.

SharesPost launched the first secondary market for private tech company shares in 2009 and built the leading platform for secondary transactions. SharesPost provides the private growth asset class with a suite of trading and investment solutions to facilitate shareholder liquidity. SharesPost has operations in San Francisco and New York City.

Forge Global was founded in 2014 by Y Combinator alumni and is backed by top Silicon Valley investors and large, global institutions, including Peter Thiel, Draper Associates, Munich Re, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Börse, and TD Ameritrade.

Together, the two companies will create one of the leading global private securities marketplaces, serving the liquidity needs of high-growth unicorn companies and their employees and connecting investors to private market investment opportunities.

Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive financial advisor to SharesPost. The transaction highlights Houlihan Lokey’s leading position as an advisor to the capital markets technology sector and builds on significant recent momentum in the broader fintech sector.