OpenVC, a venture capital fundraising platform, is joining Morningstar, FTSE Russell and Nasdaq in launching a benchmark designed to track both public and private companies.
The firm announced the creation of NYSE OpenVC 500 Index, which will track 500 of the largest companies in the U.S. by value. It will include U.S.-based companies from the NYSE U.S. 500 Index and the NYSE OPEN Venture Capital Unicorn Index. The latter tracks the largest venture-backed private firms with valuations of $1 billion or more. The companies are weighted using a modified, non-float-adjusted market-cap approach.
The NYSE OpenVC 500 Index is calculated and disseminated daily and will be reconstituted annually. ICE Data Indices serves as the index administration and calculation agent for the index.
“If you’re benchmarking U.S. equity market performance based solely on the performance of publicly-listed companies, you’re missing a huge piece of the puzzle,” said David Shapiro, co-founder and CEO of OpenVC, in a statement. “In fact, the two largest private venture-backed companies in the U.S. today are each valued at more than $850 billion, which would place them comfortably on the list of the 15 largest companies in the NYSE U.S. 500. Add the fact that private companies are pioneering so much of the innovation taking place in artificial intelligence and other areas of the tech sector, and it’s no wonder investors have been demanding greater transparency to the full picture of the U.S. equity market, something we’re very excited to finally be providing them with today.”
The past year saw a number of index providers join the rush to create benchmarks that would track private firms, as well as public ones. In June of 2025, FTSE Russell and alternative asset manager StepStone Group struck a partnership to develop private asset indices, starting with real estate and infrastructure. Last September, Morningstar launched its Morningstar PitchBook U.S. Modern Market Index (Modern Market 100), which tracks the performance of 100 of the largest companies in the U.S. across both public and private markets. This February, Nasdaq launched its Nasdaq Private Capital Indexes to benchmark the performance of private-market funds sourced from its Nasdaq eVestment LP database. In addition, last December, market research firm MSCI launched its All Country Public + Private Equity Index, which combines its All Country World Index, which benchmarks roughly $5.6 trillion in public equities, with its MSCI All Country Private Equity Index, which tracks 10,000 private equity funds.
