Friday, December 31, 2010

Draper-Backed Xpert Financial To Launch Private "Secondary" Stock Exchange

We looked at a couple of these little critters, SharesPost and SecondMarket in mid-2009.
This one could be a big deal, what with the hype created by secondary (typing the word I can't get over how un-'33 act it sounds) trading of Facebook.
From peHUB:
Xpert Financial Inc., with high-profile backer Tim Draper behind it, is to unveil its private company stock exchange on Friday with a vow to revolutionize the secondary market.

The San Mateo company, which changed its name this month from XChange, says it won approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to operate an online electronic trading operation similar to the Nasdaq.
The startup has raised almost $3 million from Draper and other angels and expects to see trading kick off in the first quarter. Draper is founder and managing director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, but invested in the company outside of the firm.

The startup made waves in February 2009 when it first took money from Draper but was slow to get off the ground. Chief Executive Thomas Foley (pictured) says it remained in stealth as it worked with the S.E.C. Xpert is presently seeking an institutional round of capital that Foley says targets several million dollars.

He adds that the S.E.C. approval gives Xpert an immediacy that the other marketplaces, SharesPost and SecondMarket, lack. The company’s business plan is to trade not only private company shares in the secondary market, but to give startups the option to raise money by issuing shares directly, as they would in a private placement with venture capitalists or other investors....MORE