Pre-IPO investing, once the exclusive domain of venture capital firms, hedge funds, and wealthy individuals, has been gaining popularity over the past couple of years. Today. the prospect of owning private equity in top pre-IPO unicorns becoming too strong for investors to resist, leading them to demand greater accessibility to private markets. Fortunately for them, they can now start investing in pre-IPO equity with as little as $2,500. And they have Linqto to thank for that.

If you have been wondering how much you should allocate to pre-IPO investments, you are probably already aware of how difficult it can be to get into private markets. With conditions like minimum investments as high as several million dollars, regulatory requirements, and limited supply, only a few will ever be able to invest in unicorns and top-performing startups.

Linqto has been changing this reality over the last few years by making it possible for any accredited investor, no matter their geographical location, to invest in leading startups without all the hassle. While the company only shifted its focus to private markets with the launch of its self-directed investment platform back in 2020, it has been disrupting the financial industry for more than a decade.

Linqto’s co-founders, Bill and Vicki Sarris, started working with banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions from the moment they founded the company in 2010. Linqto’s original tech stack was the evolution of the audio streaming and chatting solution developed by the couple for Stanford University and the Obama administration, which is why the company originally offered digital banking solutions. This technology, while innovative and disruptive at the time, would soon be outgrown by the company, evolving over the years as Linqto’s ambitions grew.

Over the next decade, Linqto’s mission would go through various stages, launching several products as the needs of its partners changed over time. These products included Personal Banker, a face-to-face mobile banking platform;  Otter, a SaaS App delivery platform; Leverage, a fintech app for credit unions; WIB App Store, Leverage’s counterpart for banks; and finally, the innovative investing platform it is now known for.

Linqto’s investment platform was born as a response to the lack of access to private markets faced by more than 44 million accredited investors around the world. By making it possible for these investors to take advantage of what has long been known to be one of the best-performing financial instruments, Linqto started a revolution that is still going strong.

So what is it that sets Linqto apart from traditional organizations like mutual funds and venture capital firms? To begin with, Linqto doesn’t charge fees of any kind to the investors using its platform.

This unique approach, which is only possible thanks to Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs), has cemented the company’s reputation in the financial sector. Over the years, Linqto won awards like Barlow Research Associates’  “Overall Most Innovative”, Future of Money and Technology Summit’s “Winning Startup”, and Citi’s Mobile Challenge. The company’s reputation has also allowed it to attract top talent, including names like former Brightfield CRO Susan Miller, Binance US Interim CEO Norman Reed, Facebook’s former Head Of Marketing Elisa Zoli Lai, and many others.

With almost half a million registered users, Linqto is making pre-IPO investing as accessible as it gets. A financial revolution is coming to the private markets, and is up to every investor to take advantage of such an opportunity. If you have ever wanted to add world-class startups like Uphold, Ripple, Polysing, or Zipline portfolio, this could be the time to do so.