After its latest funding round, Moniepoint officially entered the billion-dollar club, raising $110 million and securing a valuation north of $1 billion. This marks a significant leap from its $400 million valuation in 2022, when it raised $50 million.
But beyond the headline-grabbing valuation, the company’s Series C round in Q4 2024 offered more than just capital, it delivered handsome returns not only for institutional investors but also for some of Moniepoint’s early employees. According to reports, at least one staff member was able to cash out shares worth approximately $850,000 during the round.
This development raises an important question: how do individuals sell shares in a private, unlisted company where no public stock exchange exists? The answer lies in the growing world of secondary market transactions or “secondaries”, a quietly booming segment of the private capital market.
Employee selling shares during a funding round is not unique to Moniepoint. It has become increasingly common among venture capital firms, private equity players, and early employees looking to realise value from their equity stakes, often well before a public listing.
Based on publicly available data, an employee holding a 0.0125 percent equity stake in Moniepoint, possibly through a share sale arrangement, would now see that stake valued at approximately $125,000. Just three years ago, during the company’s 2022 fundraising, the same stake was worth around $50,000.
As startup valuations climb and holding periods lengthen, the opportunity to realise gains before liquidity events has given rise to an increasingly active secondary private equity market. According to Evercore’s FY 2024 Secondary Market Review, secondary market volume surged to $160 billion in 2024, highlighting investor appetite.
Much of this momentum stems from the fact that some of the world’s largest unlisted tech companies are enabling employee cash out their shares by facilitating secondaries. These structured transactions help early stakeholders, especially employees turn paper wealth into real money, often with the company’s blessing.
What are secondaries?
Secondaries refer to the buying and selling of existing shares in private companies or interests in private equity funds, rather than newly issued stock. In these transactions, early shareholders—such as employees, founders, angel investors, or even venture capital firms—sell their stakes to new investors, often ahead of a liquidity event like an IPO or acquisition.
There are three major types of secondaries: direct secondaries, LP-led secondaries, and GP-led secondaries. In direct secondaries, there is a straightforward sale of private company shares. LP-led secondaries occur when limited partners in a private equity or venture fund sell their fund interest to another investor before maturity. GP-led secondaries, meanwhile, involve general partners restructuring existing fund assets into a continuation vehicle, offering early investors the option to exit or roll over.
How you can invest in tech companies
For individual investors seeking exposure to high-growth tech companies before they go public, the pathway often lies through these secondary market transactions. As existing private equity stakeholders rebalance their portfolios or seek liquidity, newer investors are stepping in to acquire their positions, frequently at a discount and with the benefit of greater visibility into the company’s performance.
According to Nash Waterman, head of private market secondaries at Morgan Stanley, “Secondaries have become an increasingly appealing segment of the private equity market, as they allow flexibility for LPs who may want to liquidate or rebalance a portfolio.”
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Once seen as niche and complex in the 1990s, secondaries have evolved dramatically. The adoption of tech infrastructure and marketplace models has simplified transactions and brought new levels of transparency, enabling the market to scale rapidly in volume and accessibility.
Several platforms now allow qualified investors to participate in these private equity opportunities. The SecondMarket Trading Platform by NASDAQ Private Market facilitates secondary transactions by allowing employees and early investors to sell their shares to pre-approved buyers.
Another prominent platform is Forge Marketplace, where institutions, accredited individuals, and family offices can buy or sell private-company equity. Companies like OpenAI, SpaceX, and Stripe are among the high-profile names commonly traded on Forge today.
LenderKit also integrates a secondary market feature, enabling investors to partially or fully liquidate their positions in privately held companies. This structure provides much-needed flexibility in an otherwise illiquid asset class.
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A Crunchbase report on secondary trading activity on the platform Augment highlighted Rubrik, Databricks, SpaceX, and Chainalysis as some of the most traded names, reflecting the ongoing demand for stakes in category-defining tech firms.
