Carta (software company)

Carta was founded as eShares in 2012 by entrepreneur Henry Ward and serial investor Manu Kumar.[4] Ward became CEO and Kumar became the company's Chairman.[5] The company launched when the founders saw a need for venture-backed companies to electronically manage equity, issue securities, and track their cap tables.[6]

In August 2015 eShares raised a $17 million Series B, led by Spark Capital.[7]

In October 2016 eShares partnered with cloud-based human resources company Zenefits to add equity management to Zenefits' platform.[8]

On September 1, 2017, eShares acquired competitor Silicon Valley Bank's valuation business Silicon Valley Bank Analytics (SVBA).[9] In October Carta raised a $42 million Series C, led by Menlo Ventures and Social Capital. Matt Murphy of Menlo Ventures and Arjun Sethi of Social Capital joined the board of directors.[9] In November, CEO Ward announced in a blog post that eShares would start doing business under a new name, Carta.[10]

In December 2018 Carta raised $80 million in series D and reached a valuation of $800 million, led by Tribe Capital and Meritech Capital Partners.[2]

In May 2019, the company raised $300 million in a Series E round at a $1.7 billion valuation, led by Andreessen Horowitz.[6] In November, the company received coverage for announcing new employee separation policies, including approving departure pay for all employees, while removing separation agreements and legal documents.[11] The company also was one of the first to extend option exercise windows for departing employees, as employees became more concerned about their equity stakes.[11]

In 2020, a series F funding round valued the company at $3.1 billion.[12]

In January 2021, launched a private stock exchange called CartaX, to allow employees and shareholders to sell private shares before an IPO or acquisition. In February, the company sold just under $100 million of its own stock on CartaX.[12]

In September 2022, Carta acquired UK competitor Capdesk for an undisclosed sum.[13]

Carta develops software to help companies maintain their capitalization tables, which show a company's percentages of ownership, equity dilution, and value of equity in each round of investment by founders, investors, and other owners.[7] The company's software also helps customers digitally manage their valuations, portfolio investments and equity plans.[2] Business Insider referred to the company "the NASDAQ for private companies".[11]

Carta's software allows company founders to issue digital share certificates to investors, employees, and others who qualify for stock options. It also develops a centralized dashboard, for issuers to keep track of stock ownership, the timing and pricing of shares issued, and which owners are willing to sell.[14] Venture firms also use Carta's software to manage their portfolios.[14]

The company also operates the CartaX private stock exchange, a way for employees and shareholders to sell their stocks before the company goes public or is acquired.[15]

The company's focus on capitalization tables led to a series of equity gap studies called Table Stakes. The reports highlight the equity gaps between employees and founders based on gender, race, ethnicity and geography in a variety of industries, including high tech.[16][17]

Carta is headquartered in San Francisco, California. As of August 2022, the company was reportedly tracking over $2.5 trillion[18] in company equity, and had facilitated $13 billion in secondary-market sales.[18] Its customers include Slack and Affirm.[4] Henry Ward is the company's CEO.[5]