What is Nasdaq?
Market infrastructure, listings, indices, and financial technology company serving listed companies, broker-dealers.
- Category
- Market infrastructure, listings, indices, and financial technology
- Headquarters
- New York, NY
- Founded
- 1971
- Employees
- 9,000+
- Total funding
- Public company; no VC funding
- Status
- NASDAQ: NDAQ; public company
What is Nasdaq?
Nasdaq is a public market infrastructure, listings, indices, and financial technology company. Its current public-company scale signal is 2025 net revenue above $5B and Solutions revenue above $4B after integrating Adenza.
Nasdaq is a public market infrastructure, listings, indices, and financial technology company headquartered in New York, NY. Its current scale signal is 2025 net revenue above $5B and Solutions revenue above $4B after integrating Adenza, and its customer base includes listed companies, broker-dealers, exchanges, banks, asset managers, regulators, market-data clients, and index licensees. The company operates through regulated, enterprise, or asset-intensive channels where trust, distribution, capital discipline, and operational reliability matter as much as product packaging.
The operating model is built around market-services fees, listings fees, index licensing, market data, anti-financial-crime software, governance solutions, and financial technology subscriptions. For sellers, that means the relevant buying centers are usually finance, risk, operations, technology, data, procurement, and the business unit that owns customer or asset performance. As of June 2026, the page should be read as a public-company snapshot rather than a startup profile: SEC filings, investor relations materials, official leadership pages, and public career/technology signals are the highest-confidence sources.
What does Nasdaq offer?
Nasdaq offers U.S. equities markets, Listings, Nasdaq-100 indexes, Market data, Adenza, and related services for its core customer base.
- U.S. equities markets· Core offering
- Listings· Core offering
- Nasdaq-100 indexes· Core offering
- Market data· Adjacent offering
- Adenza· Adjacent offering
- Anti-financial-crime· Adjacent offering
- Market technology· Platform/service
- Corporate platforms· Platform/service
How does Nasdaq make money?
Nasdaq monetizes through market-services fees, listings fees, index licensing, market data, anti-financial-crime software, governance solutions, and financial technology subscriptions.
Nasdaq makes money through market-services fees, listings fees, index licensing, market data, anti-financial-crime software, governance solutions, and financial technology subscriptions. pricing includes listing fees, market-data subscriptions, index licenses, trading/clearing fees, and enterprise software contracts. Because Nasdaq is public, the highest-quality unit-economic signals are revenue mix, margins, capital intensity, client assets or property metrics, retention, claims/loss ratios, transaction activity, or recurring subscription mix depending on the segment.
Growth is driven by distribution reach, pricing discipline, product breadth, technology investment, regulatory execution, and the durability of customer relationships. Vendor pitches should connect directly to measurable outcomes: lower operating cost, better risk selection, faster claims or workflow throughput, higher client retention, stronger data products, higher asset utilization, or more resilient infrastructure.
Who leads Nasdaq?
Nasdaq is led by Adena Friedman, with finance, operations, technology, and business-unit executives shaping major buying decisions.
- Adena FriedmanChair & Chief Executive OfficerCEO since 2017Leads Nasdaq's transformation from exchange operator to market-technology and data platform.
- Sarah YoungwoodExecutive Vice President & Chief Financial OfficerCFO since 2022Leads finance, integration, debt reduction, and investor relations.
- Tal CohenPresidentPresident since 2022Oversees market platforms, technology, and commercial execution.
- Brad PetersonChief Technology and Chief Information OfficerTechnology leader since 2013Leads Nasdaq's market systems, cloud, and enterprise technology.
How do you contact Nasdaq's leadership?
Nasdaq publishes company-level investor or media contact routes, but it does not publish personal executive emails as the default way to reach leadership. Use the public company contact listed here and treat any personal-address pattern as unverified unless the company publishes it.
investor.relations@nasdaq.com is public; personal executive format not verifiedHow much funding has Nasdaq raised?
Nasdaq is a public company, not a venture-backed startup; its relevant capital profile is NASDAQ: NDAQ public-market status.
Nasdaq is a public market-infrastructure company. Its capital history includes public equity, OMX, eVestment, Verafin, and Adenza acquisitions, debt reduction, dividends, and buybacks. There is no meaningful venture-funding round history to enumerate; the major capital events are public-market listing history, acquisitions, strategic portfolio moves, debt issuance, dividends, and buybacks.
For sales planning, this is usually a positive capacity signal but not a blank-check signal. Nasdaq can fund enterprise systems and strategic programs, yet procurement will expect public-company controls, security diligence, compliance review, integration clarity, and a business case tied to the metrics investors already watch.
How did Nasdaq get here?
Nasdaq's history is defined by founding scale, public-market milestones, strategic acquisitions or expansions, and current 2025/2026 operating results.
- 1971Electronic market launchesNasdaq launches as the first electronic stock market.
- 2002Public companyNasdaq becomes a public company.
- 2008OMX combinationNasdaq combines with OMX and expands exchange technology internationally.
- 2021Verafin acquisitionNasdaq expands anti-financial-crime software.
- 2023Adenza acquisitionNasdaq closes the Adenza acquisition and increases financial-technology revenue.
- 2025Revenue milestoneNasdaq exceeds $5B of annual net revenue and $4B Solutions revenue.
Who are Nasdaq's competitors?
Nasdaq competes with peers that sell to similar customers, own adjacent assets, or provide substitute data, insurance, financial, exchange, real-estate, or infrastructure workflows.
- Intercontinental ExchangeOwner of NYSE plus exchanges, clearing, fixed-income data, and mortgage technology.
- CboeOptions, equities, volatility products, and market-data exchange competitor.
- CME GroupDerivatives exchange and clearing competitor.
- LSEGExchange, data, workflow, and post-trade competitor.
- Deutsche BörseEuropean exchange, clearing, index, data, and market-technology competitor.
Nasdaq — frequently asked questions
