True Global Ventures' Portfolio Company Forge Global Goes Public in Business Combination With Motive Capital Corp

True Global Ventures' portfolio company Forge Global publicly lists on the New York Stock Exchange March 22nd, 2022 (Graphic: Business Wire)

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True Global Ventures’ ("TGV") portfolio company Forge Global Holdings, Inc (NYSE: FRGE) (“Forge”), a leading global private securities marketplace, completed its business combination with MotiveCapital Corp ("MOTV"), a special purpose acquisition company sponsored by affiliates of Motive Partners, on the New York Stock Exchange on the 22nd of March, 2022. This combination allows Forge to become a publicly traded company on the NYSE.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220322005693/en/

True Global Ventures has been an ardent believer and long-time investor of the private securities market segment because of the trend of companies staying private longer than in the past. Since TGV Fund 1 in 2010, TGV made early investments into SharesPost, a company acquired by Forge in 2020, and made additional investments from Fund 2 and Fund 3, together with other prominent investors such as PhillipCapital, etc.

True Global Ventures Fund 4 Plus then invested directly into Forge in 2021, in the oversubscribed round of more than US$150M in new funding, together with other existing investors Deutsche Börse and new investors like Temasek, Wells Fargo Strategic Capital, LUN Partners Group and others.

Forge continued to show strong growth in 2021 with record revenues and trading volumes. Revenue less transaction-based expenses grew a robust 75% year-over-year in 2021, above published forecast and trading volume continued a sharp upward ascent, growing 71% in 2021 to $3.2 billion.

The partnered company together with MOTV will be renamed Forge Global Holdings, Inc. where the common stock and warrants are to be traded on the New York Stock Exchange beginning on the 22nd of March this year. They will be listed under the tickers "FRGE" and "FRGE WS" respectively.

"This experience of backing one of the most industry-changing startups back in 2010, helping them to grow through the years, and being part of the successful journey, has been extremely rewarding and fulfilling. We know that the company is in very good hands now with the strong Management Team that Forge has when they go public. I’m confident that Forge Global will continue to grow strongly as the private securities market is ever growing," said Dušan Stojanović, Founding Partner of True Global Ventures.

“We’re excited about our public listing and believe it marks another clear signal in the acceleration of the private market,” said Kelly Rodriques, CEO of Forge. “Since our early days, True Global Ventures has been a supportive partner in our quest to build an accessible, liquid and transparent private market and we look forward to their support as we continue this journey.”