Equitybee vs EquityZen 2026

They are different instruments marketed to the same buyer. EquityZen is a secondary marketplace: it matches an existing shareholder-seller with an accredited buyer and transfers actual company shares, usually wrapped in an SPV LLC whose membership interest you hold. Equitybee is not a secondary market and states so directly — it does not buy or transfer shares. Instead it finances a specific employee's stock-option exercise cost through a single-purpose Series LLC; the employee keeps the shares and contractually owes the series principal, 2-4% annual interest, and a 17-42% share of the funded shares' equity value on a successful liquidity event. On EquityZen you hold an interest in real shares. On Equitybee you hold a contingent claim on one employee's future proceeds — you never appear on the company cap table.

On EquityZen, yes — indirectly. Most deals are structured through SPV LLCs where you own a membership interest in the entity that holds the underlying shares; larger direct share acquisitions ($200,000+) put your name on the cap table directly. On Equitybee, no. The funded employee remains the 100% legal owner of the shares. Your Series LLC holds a contractual claim on a portion of that employee's proceeds, contingent on a successful liquidity event. The company is not a participant in the Equitybee offering and has not endorsed it.

EquityZen, by a wide margin on the visible cost. Following the January 2026 Morgan Stanley acquisition, EquityZen cut buyer fees to 2.5% on investments up to $1M (2.0% above), with sellers also paying 2.5% — roughly 5% total transaction friction, and no carried interest or ongoing management fee on single-company SPVs. Equitybee carries a 5% front-end brokerage fee on your capital contribution at closing (paid to affiliate Equitybee Securities LLC regardless of outcome), a 5% carried interest on the interest and equity-share portions of proceeds, and a separately-defined Stock Appreciation Amount that the templated PPM names but does not quantify — roughly 10% in platform-level fees before that amount. Separately, the funded employee retains a 17-42% Share Incentive, which is not a fee but caps the portion of equity value the investor receives.

It is a platform-reported figure measured against a denominator that makes it read larger. Equitybee's marketed median 70% discount is calculated against the most recent preferred share price paid by cap-table investors, over offers from June 2018 to March 2026, and is hedged by the platform as past performance achieved primarily in favorable conditions. On AltStreet's capture of the 21 current live offers (June 2026), the discount of the offer price to the 409A common price ranged from roughly 6% to 49%, with a median near 30%. Preferred shares carry rights that sit structurally above 409A common, so a preferred-denominated discount reads larger than the discount relevant to common-equity economics. The 70% figure may be accurate on its own terms; the verifiable discount on the current live set is closer to 30%. The lifetime claim cannot be independently audited because historical offer terms are not publicly recoverable.

It is a platform-reported net aggregate exit return across completed deals — and it carries survivorship bias. The figure includes only investments that achieved a successful exit and excludes ongoing holdings, positions that failed entirely, and the opportunity cost of multi-year illiquid capital. Spread over a roughly five-year average hold, 74% is approximately 11.7% annualized before fees, and around 11.1% net of the 2.5% buyer fee. Third-party sources describe individual outcomes ranging from a 100% loss to 450%+ gains. The distribution behind the aggregate — what share of deals lost money, the median outcome, quartile performance by vintage — is not publicly disclosed.

Yes, on both. On Equitybee, repayment is contingent on a successful liquidity event (proceeds exceeding principal) and on the individual employee performing on the remittance obligation. If the company fails or never has a qualifying event, the outcome is total loss — Equitybee's own platform-reported MOIC table lists a 0.00x multiple for the bankruptcy outcome, and interest compounds only on a successful event, so there is no accrual to offset the downside. On EquityZen, a portfolio company can fail and the position can go to zero; separately, a deal can fail before your capital deploys if the company exercises its right of first refusal (ROFR) or blocks the transfer after you have committed. Size every position on either platform assuming it can reach zero.

Neither offers near-term liquidity, but the lockup mechanics differ. EquityZen positions are typically underwritten as 2-5+ years of illiquidity; even after an IPO, shares held through the fund can remain restricted until the later of the standard 180-day lockup expiry or one year from the fund's purchase date. A conditional Express Deal resale may exist but should not be assumed. Equitybee series carry a 7-year term that is extendable indefinitely through a Liquidating Vehicle, with a 180+ day post-IPO lockup, no redemption mechanism, and no secondary market for the product (Equitybee states this directly). Equitybee capital is committed until the portfolio company has a successful liquidity event — or indefinitely if no event occurs.

Both generally issue Schedule K-1s because both use partnership-taxed LLC structures, and both can produce phantom income and multi-state filing obligations. The timing differs. EquityZen K-1 timing depends on the vehicle: standard single-company funds often issue a K-1 only in years with a taxable event (targeting early March), diversified managed funds issue annual K-1s (late March to early April), and dual-layer funds can be delayed into August or September — making a tax extension functionally the default for some deals. Equitybee K-1s are generally delivered after the April 15 individual filing deadline, so an extension should be the default assumption. On an Equitybee event, the interest component may generally be treated as ordinary income and the Share-Incentive component as capital gain. QSBS generally does not apply to Equitybee because you do not hold company shares; on EquityZen it is offering-specific. This is not tax advice — consult a qualified adviser and the specific deal documents.

Yes. EquityZen was acquired by Morgan Stanley Wealth Management in January 2026 — reported as the first acquisition under CEO Ted Pick — and now operates as a wholly-owned subsidiary, with Morgan Stanley expecting roughly $100M in integration costs over two years. The acquisition coincided with the fee cut from the prior tiered 5%/4%/3% structure to 2.5% on both buyer and seller sides, effective February 19, 2026. EquityZen continues to operate through its registered broker-dealer subsidiary, EquityZen Securities LLC (FINRA CRD 281820, a SIPC-member broker-dealer). Equitybee, by contrast, is an independent company (Equitybee Inc, founded 2017) operating through affiliated regulated entities.

For an investor who wants exposure to a pre-IPO company's shares with the simpler instrument and the lower visible cost, EquityZen is the more conventional choice: you generally hold an SPV interest backed by actual shares, the fee is 2.5%, and Morgan Stanley ownership adds institutional credibility — with the ROFR, lockup, K-1, and survivorship caveats understood. Equitybee suits a narrower investor who specifically wants the option-funding structure, understands they are buying a contingent claim rather than shares, accepts the ~10% fee stack plus the 17-42% capped upside and the total-loss floor, has read the dashboard terms and the series' Form D rather than relying on the marketed 70% discount, and can build a diversified basket across many series with capital they can lock up indefinitely. Most first-time investors are closer to the first profile than the second.

No. Per the cFund Master Private Placement Memorandum, the Equitybee series LLCs are unaudited, there is no independent fund administrator (administration is handled by the affiliated manager), and the manager waives fiduciary duties to investors. Default statistics, exit statistics, and valuations are self-reported by the affiliated manager without third-party attestation. Importantly, this vehicle-level governance is a separate question from the entity-level regulatory record, which is clean: Equitybee Securities LLC (broker-dealer, CRD 41896) carries no disclosed FINRA enforcement, and Equitybee Advisors LLC (CRD 309297) reports zero disciplinary events on Form ADV Item 11. EquityZen's SPVs are also private placements with limited ongoing disclosure, but the platform now sits under Morgan Stanley's broker-dealer infrastructure.

Rarely, and not dependably, on either. EquityZen offers a conditional Express Deal resale path, but eligibility commonly requires more than 2% ownership of the original fund, satisfaction of minimum holding periods, and finding a single buyer for the full position — investors entering at the $5,000-$20,000 minimums should generally assume it will not be available to them. Equitybee has no redemption mechanism and no secondary market for the product at all. On both platforms, the realistic exit is a company liquidity event, not an early sale.