Crowd Street and Equity Trust Deepen Their Technology Integration to Deliver a More Streamlined Private Markets Investing Experience through Crowd Street

Crowd Street’s latest enhanced integration creates a more unified experience, helping investors more easily access and deploy retirement capital into private markets

NEW YORK, Aug. 19, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Crowd Street, a private market investment platform helping members evaluate and access self-directed private market investment opportunities, today announced the launch of new platform capabilities with Equity Trust Company, a leader in the self-directed retirement space.

The enhancements introduce single sign-on (SSO) and simplified account connectivity, creating a simpler experience for investors looking to access private markets through retirement accounts.

The launch builds on Crowd Street’s existing collaboration with Equity Trust and marks another step toward simplifying how investors connect retirement capital to private market opportunities.

For many investors, retirement accounts represent a significant portion of long-term capital, but accessing private markets through these accounts has historically been complex and fragmented. Crowd Street’s latest updates address that friction by enabling a more connected and self-directed investment experience. Through self-directed IRAs (SDIRAs), investors can use eligible retirement capital to access private market opportunities while maintaining the potential tax advantages associated with retirement accounts.¹ For investors pursuing long-term strategies in private markets, SDIRAs may also provide a more flexible way to keep retirement capital invested across a broader range of asset classes.²

“From the beginning of our relationship with Equity Trust, our goal has been to make long term tax advantaged investing easier to navigate for our members,” said John Imbriglia, CEO of Crowd Street. “These new tech capabilities further simplify what used to be a complicated process. Now investors can fund their custodial accounts at Equity Trust and choose to invest in professionally managed funds from asset managers available through Crowd Street more efficiently. The investment funds now offered through Crowd Street can give eligible accredited investors exposure to publicly non-traded companies.”

With SSO, Equity Trust users can now access Crowd Street through a more direct pathway to private market investments across asset classes including private equity, private credit, venture capital, and real estate. Investors also have access to educational resources developed in collaboration with Callan to support informed decision-making.

For existing Crowd Street members with Equity Trust accounts, the integration introduces a more streamlined experience, including simplified account linking, visibility into Equity Trust IRA cash balances, digital document signing, and automated investment funding workflows after appropriate authorizations and when capital is available.

“As investors take a more active role in managing their retirement capital, simplifying the experience is important,” said George Sullivan, CEO of Equity Trust. “WealthBridge was designed to help connect Equity Trust account holders with a broad network of alternative investment platforms, including Crowd Street, through a more streamlined experience. Through this integration, eligible investors can more easily access investment opportunities across multiple private market asset classes available through Crowd Street’s platform.”

The integration reflects a shared focus on expanding access, improving usability, and supporting investor education as private markets can play a growing role in diversified portfolios. The latest update follows Crowd Street and Equity Trust’s previously announced platform capabilities, which allow members to open a self-directed IRA through Equity Trust within the Crowd Street platform. It also follows the hire of Dave Kasouf as Crowd Street’s first Chief Private Markets Officer. As Chief Private Markets Officer, Kasouf leads Crowd Street’s process for reviewing investment funds and asset managers, as well as managing Crowd Street’s strategic collaborations and investor relations efforts.

As part of its commitment to investor education, Crowd Street has published resources on private market investing, including a Guide to Private Equity Investing and a Guide to Private Credit Investing. These guides provide an overview of how these asset classes work and some key considerations for accredited investors. These materials are for informational purposes only and do not constitute investment advice.

Investors should also be aware that these investments carry risks including loss of principal and limited transparency. Private market investments also typically involve illiquidity, long holding periods, limited valuation information, and restrictions on transfer. Crowd Street believes investors should clearly understand the costs and risks of these opportunities before investing. Crowd Street does not provide investment advice or recommendations, and members are solely responsible for their own investment decisions.

For more information, visit https://crowdstreet.com/.

About Crowd Street
Crowd Street empowers its members to reach their financial ambitions through self-directed private market investments. The platform offers a carefully selected marketplace of alternative investment opportunities that have historically been available to a small group of people. In addition to providing tools, research, and insights to help investors confidently explore these opportunities, Crowd Street is also building a member experience rooted in trust and experience – further bridging the gap between investment opportunities and true financial wealth.

Private market investments involve significant risks, including illiquidity, loss of principal, long holding periods, and limited transparency. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Crowd Street does not provide investment advice. All investment decisions are made independently by members. Investments on the platform are available only to accredited investors and are not suitable for all investors. Please review all offering documents carefully before investing.

Media Contact
LaunchSquad
crowdstreet@launchsquad.com

About Equity Trust Company
Equity Trust Company is a financial services company that enables individual investors and financial professionals to diversify investment portfolios using alternative asset classes such as real estate, private equity, cryptocurrency, and precious metals. With $81 billion in assets under custody and administration as of December 31, 2025, Equity Trust supports clients nationwide with education, service, and technology to help them build wealth through self-directed investing.

Media Contact
Sharae Richmond
s.richmond@trustetc.com

Equity Trust Company is a directed custodian and does not provide tax, legal, or investment advice. Any information communicated by Equity Trust Company is for educational purposes only, and should not be construed as tax, legal or investment advice. Whenever making an investment decision, please consult with your tax attorney or financial professional.

This press release is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security. It is not investment advice, a recommendation, or a statement about the suitability of any investment for any person. Any offering is made only pursuant to the applicable offering documents, which should be reviewed carefully, including the discussion of risks, fees, expenses, and investment limitations. Private market investments are speculative, involve risk, including possible loss of principal, and may be illiquid. Availability of any investment opportunity is subject to investor eligibility requirements and applicable law.

¹ Tax treatment depends on each investor’s circumstances and compliance with applicable retirement account rules.
² Private market investments involve significant risks, including illiquidity, long holding periods, limited transparency, and loss of principal, and are not suitable for all investors.