FirstPEX was a

private electronic market A private electronic market (PEM) uses the Internet to connect a limited number or pre-qualified buyers or sellers in one market. PEMs are a hybrid between perfectly open markets (e.g. exchanges where there is no pre-existing relationship betwee ...

for

private equity Private equity (PE) is stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public; instead it is offered to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the co ...

transactions based in Switzerland.

History

The platform was founded by Patrick Gruhn in 2011. At the time of its launch, it was compared to the American

SecondMarket Nasdaq Private Market (NPM) provides a secondary market trading venue for issuers, brokers, shareholders, and prospective investors of private company stock. Since inception, NPM has facilitated more than $40 billion in transactional volume and h ...

. Through a partnership with UK-based Autumn Capital Partners the platform was expanded outside of Switzerland to the rest of Europe. The platform was not subject to the regulatory supervision by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (

FINMA The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) is the Swiss government body responsible for financial regulation. This includes the supervision of banks, insurance companies, stock exchanges and securities dealers, as well as other fin ...

); however it was subject to authorization in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. The company was dissolved in 2016.

Features

The site required users to purchase a paid membership in order to trade. It allows qualified

investor An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future Return on capital, return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital the investor usually purchases some species of pr ...

s to buy and sell equities in privately owned to each other through a bidding process which enables the parties to find a mutually agreeable price. The site's primary userbase was made up of

entrepreneurs Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

, investors and business owners, in which negotiations and the exchange of information on investment transactions is covered prior to closing transactions. The site also allowed users to trade in non-liquid assets. The site was based on the Django web framework, and had functionality to navigate through listings according to various of criteria such as asset class, investment volume, country of origin, sector and industry. Its features also included a live chat and a data room for the secure sharing of files.

References

External links

Official website
* * {{cite web, url=http://www.privateequitymanager.com/PrintView.aspx?aid=62471&type=2&hashID=50EA411EBAF205EEADA4852F51B3D31D1B7F7A14 , title=Europe gets its own 'SecondMarket' , publisher=Privateequitymanager.com , date=2011-08-04 , accessdate=2012-01-19 Online auction websites of Switzerland Private equity firms Defunct websites