Polymarket launched prediction markets tied to private company performance on Tuesday, giving retail participants a way to trade on milestones at companies that have yet to go public.
Events available on the platform will cover private company milestones including valuation thresholds, when a company goes public, and activity in secondary markets, Polymarket said, with Nasdaq Private Market serving as the data infrastructure partner behind the arrangement
Nasdaq Private Market will serve as the resolution data provider, ensuring each market settles against verified data. “Prediction markets are one of the most powerful tools we have for democratizing access to financial information and opportunity,” Polymarket founder and CEO Shayne Coplan said in a statement. “For the first time, anyone can engage with the outcomes driving value at the world’s most consequential private companies.” The company cited figures showing that roughly 1,600 unicorn companies worldwide represent a combined value exceeding $5 trillion, a pool of wealth that has historically been accessible only to institutional players and affluent individual investors. The new offering is intended to open that exposure to a broader audience. The partnership also creates a price discovery tool for institutional investors, the company said.
Nasdaq Private Market CEO Tom Callahan said in a statement that the platform’s data would ensure accurate market resolution. Nasdaq Private Market VP of Data Rodolfo Sanchez said in a statement that activity on Polymarket’s new markets would generate real-time signals that institutional investors could use to assess private company performance. The product arrives at a moment when more startups are delaying public listings, according to Reuters, and some have grown large enough to rival the scale of established S&P 500 members.