Caplight raises $16M in Series A round co-led by BlackRock and UBS
The private market data platform has attracted Wall Street's biggest names as companies stay private longer than ever
BlackRock and Fin Capital have co-led a $16 million Series A into Caplight, the San Francisco-based platform that provides pricing data and trading infrastructure for private market secondary transactions. UBS Investment Bank joined as a strategic investor.
The round also drew increased commitments from existing backers including DB1 Ventures (the venture arm of Deutsche Börse Group), Better Tomorrow Ventures, Clocktower Ventures, and Dash Fund. Leap Global Partners co-led the round alongside BlackRock and Fin Capital.
Why private market data matters now
Caplight, founded in 2021 by Justin Moore and Javier Avalos, sits at an increasingly important junction in capital markets. The company claims to hold proprietary data on over $300 billion in secondary market transactions and $4 trillion in funding rounds spanning more than 100,000 private companies.
The platform’s client base collectively manages over $52 trillion in assets. Prior to this Series A, Caplight had raised approximately $10 million in earlier funding. The new capital nearly triples the company’s total fundraising.
The BlackRock angle
BlackRock already operates Aladdin, its risk analytics and portfolio management platform that serves as the backbone for trillions in institutional assets. It also acquired Preqin, the private markets data provider, giving it a significant foothold in alternative investment analytics. Caplight’s secondary market pricing data could slot neatly into that ecosystem, offering a layer of real-time transaction intelligence that’s historically been difficult to source.
UBS joining as a strategic investor follows a similar logic. The Swiss bank has been expanding its wealth management capabilities and private markets access, particularly for ultra-high-net-worth clients who want exposure to pre-IPO companies.
What this means for investors
For the crypto-adjacent world, there’s a parallel worth noting. Caplight’s raise is a reminder that traditional finance is building its own solutions for private market liquidity, without any blockchain layer. There is no mention of cryptocurrency tokens, blockchain protocols, or any digital asset-related developments associated with Caplight or its services.