Carta operates cap-table management and valuation software and a trading platform for secondary share transactions. It ran an auction on its own platform to sell $100 million of secondary shares, which produced a $6.9 billion trading-based price. Carta used that auction result as evidence to primary investors while marketing its secondary-trading product. The company raised $500 million in a Series G at a $7.4 billion valuation and has now raised $1.29 billion in total. The auction involved 414 participants and 1,484 executed orders, which Carta presented as broader price discovery than traditional one-off deals or tender offers. Carta intends to sell more secondary shares for other companies via its platform, positioning the move as both a financing tactic and a marketing play. Carta began as eShares and provides cap-table management, 409A valuation services and a suite of equity and fund-administration products for private companies and VCs. The company sells software subscriptions and also earns fees from venture firms that use its fund-administration product. Carta says it serves more than 11,000 companies, hosts over 700,000 shareholders, and its platform covers about $575 billion in assets; its fund-administration product serves 143 venture firms. The company employs nearly 600 people across seven offices and reports an annual revenue run rate of $55 million. Carta has expanded into portfolio analytics, integrations with tax and payroll providers, and last year launched a fund administration product to help VCs manage LP relations. Its stated next step is building a private stock market, CartaX, to enable liquidity and transfers among the network of companies and investors. Some industry observers caution that Carta blends software with people‑intensive services, which could affect valuations and margins as it scales. Carta provides electronic cap table, valuation and equity-plan management for private companies, investors and employees. The company manages approximately $500 billion in equity and counts customers including Robinhood, Slack, Wealthfront, Squarespace and Coinbase. Founded in 2012 and based in Palo Alto, Carta has expanded its product set to include board management and portfolio insights. The company grew headcount from 310 to 450 employees and completed a study highlighting a major equity gap affecting female startup employees. Carta plans to use the new funding to develop transfer-agent and equity-administration products to better support startups transitioning to public companies and to launch additional products for investors to collect portfolio data and manage back-office functions. Its offering also includes audit-ready 409As and electronic securities tools for private-company ownership management.

Total raised

$880M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Series G

Latest activity

Aug 2021