Nasdaq Private Market Debuts Daq to Fix $5 Trillion Private Market Data Gap

Quick Summary

Nasdaq Private Market (NPM) has launched Daq, a comprehensive private market data platform designed to solve fragmentation in the $5 trillion private sector. By unifying real-time pricing, cap tables, and waterfall analysis, Daq provides institutional investors with verifiable, transaction-based intelligence to replace stale, speculative valuations.

How Does Daq Solve the Private Market Data Problem?

Nasdaq Private Market addresses the lack of transparency by providing a unified data layer that consolidates fragmented information into a single source of truth. Unlike traditional providers that rely on external observations, Daq leverages real secondary transactions occurring on the NPM platform to deliver daily, market-informed pricing.

• Real-time valuations covering over $5 trillion in private company assets.
• Automated waterfall analysis to assess liquidation preferences and preference stacks.
• Direct source documents integrated within the platform to streamline due diligence.

This approach ensures that asset managers and banks no longer have to "stitch together" data from multiple vendors, reducing operational friction and improving the accuracy of quarterly portfolio marks.

What Capabilities Does the Daq Platform Offer?

The platform is built around four core capabilities designed for high-stakes financial decision-making. NPM Price serves as the flagship feature, offering a daily barometer for private company valuations based on actual trade activity rather than speculative predictions or outdated funding rounds.

• Comprehensive cap tables and funding round histories for deep-dive research.
• Order flow benchmarking to help firms screen for discounted trading opportunities.
• API-first integration allowing firms to feed raw data directly into proprietary models.

By providing verifiable source data, Daq enables wealth managers and secondary investors to validate term sheets and pricing with a level of precision previously unavailable in the opaque private markets.

Who Benefits Most from This Private Market Intelligence?

Institutional asset owners and advisory firms like Houlihan Lokey are the primary beneficiaries of this private market data evolution. The platform allows corporate strategy teams and index providers to build new financial products, such as private market indices and specialized funds, on top of trusted transaction data.

"NPM Price has become one of the most reliable barometers for where notable private companies are trading – it is the invaluable tool for secondary data within our valuation practice," said Ian Coffman, Director at Houlihan Lokey.

Whether for LP reporting or screening for new secondary opportunities, the platform provides the defensible valuation view required by modern compliance and investment committees.

FF NEWS TAKE:

The launch of Daq definitely moves the needle for the private equity and secondary markets. For too long, private market data has been a black box of "best guesses." By weaponizing their own transaction flow into a data product, Nasdaq Private Market is effectively commoditizing transparency. This will likely accelerate the institutionalization of secondaries, making private shares nearly as trackable as their public counterparts.