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Caplight provides a dedicated platform for private market data and trading, enhancing transparency and liquidity for pre-IPO assets. It offers tools for real-time price discovery, historical trend analysis, and comprehensive market alerts. The platform facilitates institutional trading and secondary market pricing for private company stock, empowering participants.
Caplight was founded in 2021 by Justin Moore and Javier Avalos. They identified significant opacity and illiquidity within private markets, particularly for pre-IPO valuations and secondary transactions. This insight propelled them to create a solution providing investors and shareholders with superior information and efficient trading mechanisms.
The platform serves institutional investors, asset managers, brokers, and shareholders active in private company stock. Caplight's vision is to redefine private markets by providing infrastructure for data, trading, and risk management. It aims to transform private market investing into a more accessible, efficient, and transparent domain.
Caplight has raised $10.0M across 3 funding rounds.
Caplight has raised $10.0M in total across 3 funding rounds.
Caplight has raised $10.0M in total across 3 funding rounds.
Caplight's investors include Michael Peters, 645 Ventures, Craft Ventures, Flare Capital Partners, Flexcap, Insight Partners, Ellie Wheeler, Nelson Chu, Clocktower Technology Ventures, Dash Fund, Susquehanna Private Equity Investments.
Caplight Technologies, Inc. is a financial technology company that builds a leading platform for private market data, trading, pricing, and sourcing tools, primarily serving venture capital firms, secondary funds, asset managers, hedge funds, and investment banks.[1][2][3] It offers real-time secondary market pricing via its MarketPrice™ model, comprehensive databases on over 20,000 VC-backed companies and 50,000+ investors, AI-powered sourcing with chat-based queries, and a marketplace with $5B+ in live buy/sell interest on private companies, enabling vetted counterparty connections and deal flow from 200+ brokers.[1][2][4] The platform addresses key pain points like sourcing (up to 1,000 hours/year per investor), pricing transparency, and liquidity in opaque private markets, with customers managing over $30 trillion in assets; recent growth includes the September 2025 launch of Caplight 2.0, expanding to 20,000+ companies and adding AI sourcing powered by $300B+ in proprietary transaction data.[2]
Caplight was founded in 2021 by Javier Avalos (CEO) and Justin Moore, with headquarters initially in Nashua, New Hampshire, later associating with San Francisco.[3][5] Avalos, highlighting the company's evolution, emphasized in 2025 how Caplight 2.0 shifts focus from secondary trading to comprehensive AI-driven sourcing and evaluation, building on earlier tools like Caplight Data (launched January 2023) for monitoring private valuations and trading activity.[2][3] Early traction stemmed from its goal to import public-market-like data, execution, and settlement into private markets via patented price discovery and structured products for hedging or positioning on private stock, attracting institutional users and enabling large investors' entry into VC.[1][3] Pivotal moments include scaling to $5B+ live interest, coverage of 25,000+ companies, and the 2025 AI platform beta amid rising demand for private market efficiency.[1][2]
Caplight stands out in private markets through these key strengths:
Caplight rides the democratization of private markets trend, where opacity in VC-backed valuations and liquidity hampers institutions amid $1T+ dry powder and lengthening hold periods for pre-IPO firms.[1][2][3] Timing aligns with post-2022 market resets, AI advancements enabling data synthesis (e.g., its 2025 sourcing engine), and regulatory pushes for transparency, positioning it to unlock capital flows into venture by mimicking public-market efficiency.[2][3] Favorable forces include surging secondary volumes ($100B+ annually), LP demand for liquidity, and growth in late-stage privates; Caplight influences the ecosystem by standardizing pricing (via MarketPrice™), accelerating deal funnels, and empowering non-traditional players like hedge funds, potentially expanding VC access beyond elite GPs.[1][4]
Caplight is poised to dominate private market infrastructure as AI refines data signals and secondaries grow to $200B+ volumes, with expansions like deeper AI workflows and global investor coverage driving 2-3x user growth.[2] Trends shaping it include tokenized privates, embedded finance in VC tools, and regulatory clarity on synthetics, evolving its role from data provider to full-stack exchange operator. Watch for partnerships with custodians or exchanges, scaling to public listings, amplifying its mission to reimagine private markets—starting from a niche trading platform to venture's indispensable nervous system.[1][2]
Caplight has raised $10.0M across 3 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $3.0M Other Equity in October 2022.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 25, 2022 | $3.0M Other Equity | Michael Peters | |
| Dec 1, 2021 | $5.0M Seed | 645 Ventures, Craft Ventures, Flare Capital Partners, Flexcap, Insight Partners, Ellie Wheeler, Nelson Chu | |
| May 1, 2021 | $2.0M Seed | 645 Ventures, Craft Ventures, Flare Capital Partners, Flexcap, Insight Partners, Ellie Wheeler, Nelson Chu, Clocktower Technology Ventures, Dash Fund, Susquehanna Private Equity Investments |