Pre-initial public offering (pre-IPO) investing with Arctic Capital opens up opportunities beyond the traditional stock market to invest in companies before they go public and be part of a company’s growth story earlier on.

A pre-IPO investment means buying shares in a private company before its initial public offering. These investments enable individuals to access exclusive, fast-growth startups alongside institutions and venture capitalists, typically via secondary investments.
Secondary investments occur when existing shareholders of a private company sell their shares to investors. In these secondary transactions, the shares are sourced from a selling shareholder, not the company, so the proceeds go to the shareholder rather than the company. This is the same type of transaction that enables you to buy public shares on a stock exchange. This contrasts with primary issuances, where a company issues new shares to employees (often as stock options) or investors to raise capital. Secondaries are named as such because they are a step removed from the primary issuance that initially created the securities.
The employees and investors who own primary shares may choose to sell them in the secondary market. The pre-IPO investments we’ll be discussing are via the private secondary market.