StartEngine Marketplace: New Service Lets Investors Trade Shares in Equity Crowdfunding Startups

One of the most commonly asked questions in equity crowdfunding is "How do I sell my shares?" This is likely, in part, due to the unintuitive nature of the industry. When you buy and sell shares on the stock market, anyone is able to freely buy and sell shares in the company. But that is not the case in startup investing. Regulation Crowdfunding investments are subject to a lockup and can't be sold for at least one year. Until now, selling shares in startups was very difficult. You had to source a private buyer and then facilitate the sale through other processes.

But that is seemingly changing with StartEngine's new "StartEngine Marketplace." Unlike Secondary, every startup that has raised through Reg A and Reg CF is eligible to trade on Marketplace. Previously, StartEngine Secondary operated more like a mini stock market that actively traded during certain hours. But Marketplace operates entirely differently.

Here, you can simply search any company that has ever raised through equity crowdfunding, then set your terms to sell your stock. Anyone looking to buy that stock at that price can indicate their interest.

While anyone can buy the stock, you need an "Owners Bonus" subscription and a StartEngine Brokerage account in order to buy and sell shares. But other than that there aren't really any restrictions on buying and selling shares in a company as long as the company isn't actively raising funds through equity crowdfunding. As of writing this, there are already more than a dozen offers to sell shares on the marketplace ranging from a few hundreds dollars to tens of thousands in stock.