Intercontinental Exchange, a leading global provider of technology and data, and OPEN announced the launch of the NYSE® OPEN Venture Capital Unicorn® Index (NYSEOVC), a new benchmark for a basket of U.S.-based, privately held and venture-backed unicorn companies. This index and the pricing supporting it represent a paradigm shift in evaluating innovative private companies, continuing to advance this era of opportunity for investors seeking to monitor and track high-growth venture-backed private companies using a robust yet transparent methodology.

“We are thrilled to introduce the NYSE® OPEN Venture Capital Unicorn® Index, a key development in the evolution of bridging public and private markets,” remarked David Shapiro, CEO at OPEN. “By applying our rigorous new approach to valuing privately held companies, and working with ICE to calculate and administer the index, we’re bringing a deeper level of transparency to some of the most innovative and fastest-growing private companies in the U.S.”

The NYSE® OPEN Venture Capital Unicorn® Index is designed to track the performance of 50 large U.S.-based Unicorns. The unique index, combining OPEN’s pricing and reference data and ICE’s robust index calculation and administration services, offers enhanced insights into the performance and valuation dynamics of leading private venture capital companies.

“OPEN’s methodology for valuing privately held companies offers deeper insights into the growth we’re seeing across the broader venture-backed tech industry,” said Preston Peacock, Head of ICE Data Indices. “As part of the ICE family of indices, this new index will be part of ICE’s suite of offerings supporting the entire index and ETF lifecycle, which ranges from securities pricing and index creation all the way to listing and trading ETFs on the New York Stock Exchange.”

“Unicorns” are privately held start-up companies with valuations of over $1 billion. They represent the largest and often highest-growth venture-backed companies. OPEN is committed to democratizing access to private markets by empowering investors with the tools to participate in the growth potential of groundbreaking companies.

For more information about the NYSE® OPEN Venture Unicorn® Index, please visit www.openvc.com . The index methodology and data can be found on the ICE Index Platform at indices.ice.com .

Source: ICE