Forge Global

How it happened

Forge Global runs a marketplace for buying and selling shares of private, venture-backed companies — including, fittingly, many unicorns — and went public in March 2022 via a $2.0B SPAC merger with Motive Capital Corp. As the private-market trading boom cooled, its volumes and stock sank. Post-listing employee reviews described a top-heavy company drifting through layoff rounds and leadership reshuffles, strategy that never settled, and equity grants staffers watched lose most of their value — even as many praised colleagues and work-life balance. In late 2025 Charles Schwab agreed to acquire Forge for about $660M, closing in March 2026 — a third of its debut valuation, a marketplace for fallen unicorns that became one itself.

Employee accounts paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor ↗. See our methodology.