Latest news with #Caplight
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Caplight Awarded Patent for AI-Powered Pricing Feed To Improve Private Market Transparency
SAN FRANCISCO, May 6, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Caplight Technologies, an innovator in private market data and trading infrastructure, today announced the issuance of a patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office protecting Caplight's proprietary method for estimating private company stock prices using secondary market transaction data. Caplight private company estimated pricing visualization. U.S. Patent No. 12,243,130 B2, titled "Data Interpolation Platform for Generating Predictive and Interpolated Pricing Data," grants Caplight exclusive rights to a proprietary method for estimating private company prices and valuations that includes aggregating private market data, generating price estimates, and visualizing them through an interactive interface. The patented technology powers Caplight MarketPriceTM and is used by private company investors, shareholders, and brokers to understand market-clearing price levels. "Lack of liquidity is one of the biggest challenges the venture capital ecosystem faces today. Accurate and timely pricing data is necessary for venture capital investors to make better-informed liquidity decisions," said Javier Avalos, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer. The issuance of this patent underscores Caplight's commitment to advancing private markets through technology innovation. "We're proud to be on the cutting edge of making venture capital more liquid. The technology covered by this patent removes an information asymmetry that prevented participants from accessing the secondary market previously," said Justin Moore, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer. About Caplight Caplight Technologies, Inc. is a financial technology company providing data and liquidity solutions to the private market. The company's price discovery tools enable market participants to navigate venture capital with more confidence. Securities are offered through Caplight Markets LLC, member FINRA/SIPC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Caplight Technologies, Inc. For inquiries, contact: contact@ Cision View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Caplight
National Post
24-04-2025
- Business
- National Post
MSCI Expands Private Assets Toolkit With Launch of Indexes Tracking Venture-Backed Companies
Article content Article content NEW YORK — MSCI Inc. (NYSE: MSCI) has launched two MSCI All Country Venture-Backed Private Company Indexes, advancing the firm's commitment to empowering investors with clear, transparent insights on the performance of private assets globally. With these indexes, MSCI is applying decades of index construction expertise to calculate the performance of venture-backed private company shares based on secondary market transaction data. Article content Private companies that receive funding from venture capital investors often operate in high-growth, technology-driven industries that have garnered growing interest from investors and wealth managers in recent years. While such companies do not trade on centralized exchanges, over-the-counter secondary markets play a key role in providing liquidity and facilitating price discovery. Article content Venture-backed companies are staying private for longer periods, with the number of publicly listed companies in the US dropping by nearly half between 1996 and 2022. 1 The number of private venture-backed companies with valuations of more than USD 1 billion has also grown tenfold in the last decade. 2 These trends have simultaneously grown the asset class and expanded the availability of market-based pricing data, enabling MSCI to develop the MSCI All Country Venture-Backed Private Company Top 20 Equal Weighted Index and the MSCI All Country Venture-Backed Private Company Top 20 Equal Weighted Vintage Index. Large venture-backed private companies worldwide with secondary market activity may be eligible for inclusion in the indexes. In constructing and calculating the indexes, MSCI uses secondary market data sourced from specialist firms Caplight and PM Insights. Both firms operate broker contributor networks to collect and analyze data across a broad cross-section of market participants. Leveraging this secondary market data, MSCI applies a research-driven, rules-based methodology focused on trading activity, size and other parameters. Article content These two new index solutions are the first offered by MSCI that seek to measure the performance of private markets at the company level. Article content 'With growing investor interest in private markets, high-quality data and consistent, independent performance measurement of private companies and funds alike are crucial for the entire investment ecosystem,' said Jana Haines, Head of Index at MSCI. 'The MSCI All Country Venture-Backed Private Company Indexes are one tool in a growing kit of solutions designed to help investors measure performance, identify opportunities and integrate private equity and private debt into portfolios with greater clarity and confidence.' Article content In addition to these new offerings, MSCI also calculates the MSCI Private Capital Indexes. Launched in July 2024, the MSCI Private Capital Indexes provide closed-end fund-level performance. They are constructed from a broad universe of private capital funds with over USD 11 trillion in capitalization. Article content About MSCI Inc. Article content MSCI is a leading provider of critical decision support tools and services for the global investment community. With over 50 years of expertise in research, data, and technology, we power better investment decisions by enabling clients to understand and analyze key drivers of risk and return and confidently build more effective portfolios. We create industry-leading research-enhanced solutions that clients use to gain insight into and improve transparency across the investment process. To learn more, please visit Article content This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements relate to future events or performance and involve risks that may cause actual results or performance differ materially and you should not place undue reliance on them. Risks that could affect results or performance are in MSCI's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the most recent fiscal year ended on December 31 that is filed with the SEC. MSCI does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements. No information herein constitutes investment advice or should be relied on as such. MSCI grants no right or license to use its products or services without an appropriate license. MSCI MAKES NO EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR OTHERWISE WITH RESPECT TO THE INFORMATION HEREIN AND DISCLAIMS ALL LIABILITY TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW Article content Article content Article content Article content Contacts Article content Media Inquiries PR@ Article content Melanie Blanco +1 212 981 1049 Article content Konstantinos Makrygiannis +44 (0) 7768 930056 Article content Tina Tan +852 2844 9320 Article content MSCI Global Client Services EMEA Client Service + 44 20 7618.2222 Article content Article content
Yahoo
15-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Tesla is getting pummeled in the stock market, but Elon Musk's other companies are having a field day in the secondary market—especially xAI
Elon Musk's private companies are a hot commodity on private markets, with the value of SpaceX, Neuralink, the Boring Company, and xAI shooting up by 45% since last year's presidential election, according to data by secondary market trading platform Caplight. Yet, as investors in private markets chase shares of Musk's private companies, Tesla shares have lost around half their value. While Tesla's share price has taken a beating recently, a fall from grace one JPMorgan analyst says may have no equal, the value of Elon Musk's private companies has soared in the four months since Donald Trump won the election. The cumulative value of SpaceX, Neuralink, the Boring Company, and xAI has shot up 45% on private markets since last November, according to data provided to Fortune by secondary market trading platform Caplight. Musk's social media company X was not factored into the calculation because of a lack of interest from investors on the secondary market. Shares of private companies are not listed on stock exchanges, so when early employees or VCs want to offload shares, they do so through a more labored process on the secondary market. Caplight helps facilitate these off-stock market sales by aggregating data on hundreds of brokers and matching institutional investors with brokers, similar to how Zillow matches prospective home buyers to real-estate agents in the housing market. Leading the rally among Musk's private companies is his artificial-intelligence company, xAI, which has gained traction among investors looking to capitalize on the latest high-tech advancements. The company's share price has skyrocketed 110% since the November election, according to Caplight, which has given the startup a valuation of around $96 billion. The AI company is rumored to be raising a $10 billion funding round at a $75 billion valuation, Bloomberg reported last month. Caplight's valuation for xAI is higher because of the increased demand from institutional investors outside of those participating in the reported funding round. Shares of SpaceX have also jumped more than 50% since the election, according to the Caplight data. Worst among Musk's non-Tesla enterprises was the Boring Company, which experienced a 7.8% decline in value since last year's election. In contrast to the stellar performance of his private companies, shares of Musk's only public company, Tesla, have lost around 50% of their value since peaking at $479.86 in December. Shares of the EV company closed down 3% Thursday at $240 per share. Private companies have for years been staying private longer, opening up more opportunities to investors in the secondary market. The median company was just under 11 years old at IPO as of 2021, compared to seven years old in 1980, according to Morningstar, and Caplight CEO Javier Avalos said some tech companies, in particular, have remained private for years because of the relative ease of fundraising. 'When you're talking about companies that are literally building rocket ships, implanting chips in people's brains, building frontier large language models, it is easier to navigate those against your core mission when you don't have to answer to the next quarter's earnings call and the analysts that are going to ask you a lot of questions,' Avalos said. Although private companies don't benefit directly from stock sales on the secondary market like they do from a funding round, it's increasingly common for private companies to execute multiple tender offers per year, where shareholders can offload their holdings. Among Musk's companies, SpaceX often executes tender offers to help keep investors and employees happy, Avalos said. 'This is an opportunity for shareholders to get some liquidity on their shares, which sort of satisfies what used to be a huge need of going public,' he said. 'You needed to go public because your venture capitalists and your early employees were sort of pressuring the company, saying, like, 'I need liquidity.'' This story was originally featured on Sign in to access your portfolio
Boston Globe
12-03-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Elon Musk's private companies soar in secondary market since election
Recent xAI deal talks with investors suggest a valuation of $75 billion for the startup. Caplight estimated that, as of March 10, xAI traded in secondary markets at a value of $96 billion. The trading platform offers buyers access to these four Musk companies and Tesla in an 'Elon Musk Crossover Index.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Caplight Advertisement Caplight excluded Musk's X from its analysis because the social media platform has 'very limited' secondary market activity, according to Javier Avalos, Caplight's chief executive officer. Secondary transactions allow outside investors to buy into private companies, often after early employees or backers offload shares. They're becoming increasingly common in Silicon Valley as the largest venture-backed startups, such as SpaceX, hold off on public listings. Since secondary investors have scant access to financial figures, these share estimates are a better indicator of investor enthusiasm than business performance. Within Musk's empire, SpaceX, in particular, attracts investors 'willing to pay a premium to the company's latest tender offer price,' Avalos said. In Augment, another secondary trading platform, account holders could see that shares of SpaceX and xAI have more than doubled since the election, as of March 12. Not every company is hot. The Boring Company, Musk's tunneling enterprise, saw a decline of 7.8% in its value since the US election. Even without secondary markets, Musk has had little trouble drumming up investor interest in X. After stretches of advertiser withdrawals and financial tumult at X, including steep writedowns by Fidelity Investments, Bloomberg reported in February that the social network was in talks to raise additional funding for a valuation of $44 billion, the same price Musk paid in 2022 when it was called Twitter. Advertisement After President Trump's election, investors pumped up the price for Tesla, convinced Musk's relationship and administration role would boost the automaker's fortunes. But production difficulties and a backlash to Musk's job-cutting crusade at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have erased Tesla's post-election gains. In private markets, Musk can be selective about the investors who access his companies. A larger number of investors are able to gain exposure through special purpose vehicles, or SPVs. The mechanism allows investors to sell their access to other would-be backers — pooling capital from a number of sources. According to Caplight, SPVs represented 12% of the total secondary transaction volume the firm measured at the start of 2023. They accounted for 43% of the volume by the final quarter of 2024.
