Publicly traded companies are ones where stock is bought and sold on an exchange, such as the NYSE or Nasdaq. Basically anyone with money can find a broker and

Publicly traded companies are ones where stock is bought and sold on an exchange, such as the NYSE or Nasdaq. Basically anyone with money can find a broker and buy/sell shares of publicly traded companies. Private firms do not list on public exchanges and their shares aren't available for purchase or sale to just anyone. Many of the more recent unicorns, such as Uber, are currently private. The size of a company does not determine whether it is public or private. Becoming public means submitted lots of paperwork to the SEC and getting an investment bank to underwrite the sale of your shares on a public exchange. All comes down to whether or not the private owners care to go through that process. Private equity usually refers to investment firms who specialize in buying shares in non-publicly traded companies. Angel investors and venture capitalists can broadly be included under this label.