Ondo Targets Pre-IPO AI Exposure With New Private Markets Platform

In Brief:

• Ondo Finance unveiled Private Markets, offering eligible investors tokenized exposure to private companies, starting with a pre-IPO artificial intelligence business.
• Notes support round-the-clock secondary trading but restrict participation to eligible non-U.S. investors without granting company ownership or associated shareholder rights.
• Ondo’s expansion builds on tokenized stock and Treasury platforms holding $3.7 billion, alongside its Japanese equity partnership with SBI Holdings.

Ondo Finance has unveiled Private Markets, offering eligible non-U.S. investors tokenized exposure to private companies, starting with an AI business. According to the announcement, tokenized notes tied to the pre-IPO company are expected to begin secondary-market trading this week.

Ondo Details Private Market Trading Terms and Investor Eligibility

The platform will offer instruments tied to selected private companies’ per-share values at qualifying liquidity events. Ondo announced the initiative on Tuesday, with plans to expand beyond its initial artificial intelligence offering.

Robotics, cybersecurity, biotechnology, and infrastructure companies feature among the sectors Ondo expects to add to the platform. These planned offerings extend the company’s product range beyond its existing tokenized public stocks and Treasury instruments.

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Ondo described the notes as freely transferable and composable onchain, allowing eligible investors to manage positions around the clock. Investors can enter, exit or adjust their holdings through secondary markets, according to the company’s stated trading plans.

The first market will support permissionless secondary trading, although access to the products remains subject to investor eligibility requirements. Ondo restricts the offering to eligible non-U.S. investors in permitted jurisdictions, despite the notes’ planned on-chain transferability.

Purchasers will hold obligations of the issuer rather than shares in the private companies referenced by their notes. Ondo emphasized that these instruments provide neither ownership nor shareholder rights in the underlying businesses. Their financial exposure instead links to the referenced company’s per-share value when a qualifying liquidity event takes place.

Private Company Offering Broadens Ondo’s Existing Tokenized Investment Business

Acting CEO and President Ian De Bode pointed to the gap between private-company activity and available retail investment options. De Bode noted that 87% of companies generating more than $100 million in revenue operate as private businesses.

In contrast, public companies account for most investment options accessible to retail investors in the United States, De Bode stated. Ondo presented Private Markets as its response to that access gap, while limiting the offering to eligible investors abroad.

The launch also adds another product category to Ondo’s broader expansion across tokenized financial assets and international markets. In July, Ondo partnered with Japan’s SBI Holdings on plans to tokenize Japanese equities through Ondo Global Markets.

Under that agreement, SBI plans to distribute Ondo products across its network and incorporate its JPYSC stablecoin. SBI intends to use the stablecoin for settlement and collateral within the partnership’s proposed financial arrangements.

Separately, Ondo reported a combined total value locked of $3.7 billion across its tokenized stock and Treasury platforms. Those platforms have also recorded more than one million cumulative holders, according to figures included in the announcement.

Ondo expects the AI-linked notes to open its private-market offering, with additional industries forming its planned expansion. The products will combine onchain trading access with issuer obligations and restrictions on eligible investors.

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