Tensions Rise in Silicon Valley Over Sales of Start-Up Stocks – Generic English

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Hiive bought $50 million of Anthropic stock and is letting investors buy chunks as small as $25,000, said Sim Desai, the company’s chief executive. The site oversees an average of around $20 million in deals a week.

At Augment, which opened last year, investors interested in owning shares in Stripe can peruse four “sell orders,” or people trying to sell Stripe shares. Augment did more than $20 million of transactions in March, Mr. Moldvai said.

Some investment funds — including Stack Capital, Fundrise, Private Shares Fund and ARK Invest’s ARK Venture Fund — are also pitching the ability to own a piece of private start-ups. Destiny, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange and contains shares in 23 start-ups worth around $53 million, is one of a few options that are publicly traded.

The activity has alarmed some start-ups. Stripe, valued at $65 billion in the private market, has issued a strongly worded statement about offers to buy its stock. Any offer to invest in its shares that does not come from the company is “very likely a scam,” it said. Stripe has encouraged shareholders to report such offers to law enforcement.

Stripe and Anthropic declined to comment for this article.

Even so, people remain eager to get shares of the start-ups, said Jeff Parks, chief executive of Stack Capital, which offers investors access to companies including SpaceX and Canva, a design software start-up.

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