Ondo Finance will introduce an on-chain product called "Ondo Private Market" that allows investment in private companies, The Block reported on Sunday. The first target is an AI company preparing for an initial public offering (IPO).

The platform, Ondo Private Market, will offer tokenised securities linked to selected private companies, the report said. The securities’ value is tied to the companies’ per-share value at the time of a qualifying liquidity event.

Investors can freely transfer the securities on-chain and combine them with other services. Qualified investors can buy, sell or adjust positions at any time, 24 hours a day.

Ondo Finance explained that the securities are not shares of the companies. They do not grant ownership or shareholder rights. Only qualified investors in permitted countries outside the United States can buy them.

Investors can trade them 24 hours a day on the secondary market without additional approval. Robot, cybersecurity, bio and infrastructure companies are expected to follow, in addition to AI companies.

Ian De Bode (이안 드 보드), interim CEO and president of Ondo Finance, said most investments accessible to retail investors in the United States are in listed companies, but 87 percent of companies with more than $100 million in revenue are private. He said Ondo Private Market is being introduced to change that.

The market capitalisation of tokenised stocks has exceeded $42 billion, according to The Block data. That accounts for about 35 percent of the total tokenised asset market of $121 billion.