Polymarket plans to use data from Nasdaq Private Market as it seeks to expand bets on unlisted companies amid a frenzy of retail investor interest.
The prediction markets platform said in a statement on Tuesday that it has signed an exclusive partnership with Nasdaq Private Market, which will provide data to resolve event contracts covering topics such as valuations, activity in secondary markets and the timing of initial public offerings.
Nasdaq Private Market was spun out from Nasdaq Inc. in 2021. According to its website, investors include the exchange operator, as well as Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Individual investors have been largely cut off from the exponential growth of private companies like OpenAI and SpaceX. By the time the companies list on the stock market, much of their value has already accrued to large venture capital firms or insiders.
That has led some retail investors to turn to largely unregulated secondary markets where employees and early investors sell shares of private firms. Last week, in a warning to traders, Anthropic PBC identified a number of secondary marketplaces as unauthorized sellers of the company’s shares.
Polymarket already offers betting on some events involving private companies. For example, a contract on what OpenAI’s closing market capitalization will be on its first day of trading has attracted roughly $1.6 million in trading volume since it was first offered in September.
