Caplight

Caplight is a San Francisco-based financial data and trading platform for private markets, founded in 2021 by Javier Avalos and Justin Moore.^[3] The company combines proprietary secondary-market pricing data with an institutional marketplace that connects investors and broker-dealers for liquidity in venture-backed company shares.^[3][5].

Its platform covers more than 100,000 private company and investor profiles, US$4 trillion in funding round data, and over US$300 billion of proprietary secondary transaction data, with more than US$5 billion in daily live transaction flow.^[3] In June 2026 Caplight closed a US$16 million Series A led by BlackRock and Fin Capital with strategic participation from UBS Investment Bank.^[2][3]

What It Does

Caplight describes its mission as bringing the infrastructure and ease of public markets to the venture-backed asset class, whose companies increasingly stay private longer while raising larger and more frequent rounds.^[1] It serves institutional investors that need to value private holdings, track market momentum, source companies, and execute secondary transactions.^[1][3]

The company operates both as a data provider and as a network: beyond datasets, it maintains billions of dollars of buy-and-sell interest from institutional transactors and connections into more than 700 registered broker-dealers, investment advisors, and qualified institutional buyers.^[4]

Data and Methodology

Caplight sits on more than US$300 billion of proprietary secondary-market transactional data alongside roughly US$4 trillion in funding round data, sourced from primary rounds, secondary trades, and tender activity.^[1][3] Because there is no central exchange for private company prices, the company derives valuations from observed bids, asks, and closed trades; its MarketPrice product implies a per-share price from more than 140 live bids, asks, and completed transactions for actively traded names.^[1]

The company also publishes research signals such as momentum rankings for mid-stage companies and quarterly venture market updates, and states that its customers collectively manage over US$52 trillion in assets.^[3][4]

Products

- Secondary Data & Trading — historical pricing trends, real-time market alerts, and an institutional marketplace connecting vetted counterparties.^[1]

- Caplight MarketPrice — implied per-share pricing for private companies derived from live order book activity.^[1]

- Company Database — profiles covering funding history, cap table insights, and investor data across tens of thousands of VC-backed companies.^[1]

- Investor Database — profiles of venture, growth, and secondary investors including portfolio holdings and co-investor networks.^[1]

- Sourcing — search and AI-driven ranking of the startup universe by fit and momentum, launched with the platform's 2.0 release.^[1]

- API & MCP server — programmatic access to Caplight data and workflows.^[3]

Delivery and Pricing

Customers access the platform via web subscription, API, and MCP server under enterprise agreements; pricing is not published publicly.^[1][3]

Securities transactions are offered through affiliate Caplight Markets LLC, a broker-dealer member of FINRA and SIPC, which separates the regulated brokerage function from the data business.^[1][3]

Buyers and Use Cases

Users include asset managers, hedge funds, sovereign wealth funds, venture funds, investment banks, and secondary funds; the company cites institutions such as BlackRock, J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Fidelity, MSCI, UBS, Morningstar, Citi, NEA, Lightspeed, Founders Fund, and William Blair among those relying on its work.^[1]

Typical use cases include marking private portfolios to market, tracking how major investors value their stakes, monitoring secondary volume and pricing trends, sourcing new investments ranked by momentum signals, and executing or hedging secondary positions.^[1][4]

History

Javier Avalos and Justin Moore founded Caplight in 2021 in San Francisco, starting with the venture secondary market, which they viewed as the most opaque corner of an increasingly institutional asset class.^[3][4] Fin Capital wrote the company's first check that year.^[4]

The platform expanded from secondary data into company and investor databases, AI-powered sourcing, and transaction infrastructure, reaching coverage of more than 20,000 VC-backed companies with its 2.0 launch before growing past 100,000 profiles.^[3]

On June 24, 2026, Caplight announced a US$16 million Series A led by BlackRock and Fin Capital, co-led by new investor LEAP Global Partners, with strategic participation from UBS Investment Bank; existing backers DB1 Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Deutsche Börse Group, Better Tomorrow Ventures, Clocktower Ventures, and Dash Fund increased their positions.^[2][3][4] BlackRock framed the investment as a framework for collaboration across its private markets and technology ecosystem, including Aladdin and Preqin.^[3]