Asset Match

Asset Match Limited (Companies House 07681197) is a London-based UK private company established in 2011 and founded by Stuart Lucas and Iain Baillie, both with capital-markets and electronic-trading backgrounds. The firm is directly authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority as a corporate finance firm under FRN 579310, with permissions for arranging and advising on transactions in unquoted securities; it is not an appointed representative.

The platform positions itself as a regulated marketplace for trading shares in unquoted and private companies, providing structured price discovery and liquidity events for shareholders who otherwise have no public market for their holdings. Reported operational metrics include over 650 auctions completed and cumulative trade value of more than £110m — these are activity figures, not assets under management or investor returns.

Asset Match operates an auction-based trading model rather than a continuous order book. Buyers and sellers submit orders into periodic auctions — both ongoing periodic events and one-off specialist auctions — and trades execute at a single clearing price determined by the auction algorithm, removing the bid–offer spread within the auction itself. The platform also supports bespoke auctions, matched-bargain secondary trades and managed fundraisings.

Settlement runs electronically through regulated brokers and stockbroker partners. Investee companies must opt in to have their shares traded on the facility, and the platform handles the documentation needed for share transfers.

The core offering is a secondary market for equity in unquoted UK private companies, alongside specialist auctions used for shareholder liquidity events, large block trades and managed fundraisings. Fees include a trading levy of around 3% per transaction, separate from any stockbroker fees and buyer's stamp duty. Some disclosures reference a minimum trade fee (around £20) and nominal listing fees that can be capped (with up to £8,000 cited in some materials, partially refundable depending on volume).

Asset Match does not run an investor-facing fund or hold customer assets in the manner of an AUM business; the public metrics it reports relate to auction volumes and cumulative trade value rather than money managed.

The platform is aimed at experienced investors — typically sophisticated, high-net-worth and institutional participants — and at existing shareholders of private companies who need a structured route to liquidity. Asset Match's own materials warn that these investments are high-risk, illiquid and that investors can lose all capital invested. It is not pitched as a retail product for risk-averse savers, and price discovery in periodic auctions does not equate to continuous tradability.

Strengths. Direct FCA authorisation as a corporate finance firm and a formal auction market structure provide regulatory oversight and an organised mechanism for price discovery in otherwise opaque private-share markets. Reported auction activity demonstrates real platform usage, and the auction model gives both sides of a trade a clear, single execution price.

Risks. All listed instruments are private-company shares: high-risk, illiquid, and subject to total loss. Liquidity is provided in discrete auction windows rather than continuously, so exits may take time or fail to clear at favourable prices. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme does not protect against market losses on private equity holdings; FSCS may, in limited circumstances, cover certain consumer claims arising from regulatory failure, but it should not be relied on as capital protection.

No FCA enforcement actions, public warnings or indications of unauthorised activity were identified for Asset Match Limited in the reviewed material; the firm's status on the FCA Register under FRN 579310 should still be reconfirmed before transacting. Independent third-party reviews (for example on Trustpilot or Reddit) are sparse, which limits crowd-sourced sentiment analysis and increases reliance on the platform's own disclosures.

Operationally, liquidity depends on the number, size and composition of auctions held in any given period; some historically listed companies may now be dissolved or inactive, which is a normal feature of private-market populations rather than a sign of platform failure. Investors should perform issuer-level due diligence on each company and confirm their broker and settlement arrangements before participating in an auction.