Carta
Software and services platform providing infrastructure for innovators
- 1001+ employees
- Fintech
- B2B
- Investing
- Union Square, San Francisco, CA
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Company mission
To create more owners across the world and revolutionize how capital markets operate. Carta believes that by providing the infrastructure that fuels innovation, it lowers the barriers to entry and moves the world forward into an era of ownership.
-4% employee growth in 12 months
Our take
Carta offers an all-in-one equity management platform for startups. This California-based fin-tech makes managing equity within startups simple. As many startups are initially held by private individuals, it can be difficult for shareholders to allocate or offload shares transparently. Carta is a transfer agent for private companies that enables seed-stage to pre-IPO companies to manage equity electronically with the participation of their shareholders, employees, auditors, and legal counsel. It digitizes paper stock certificates along with stock options, warrants, and derivatives to create a real-time image of who owns what at a startup.
The firm has a host of high-profile backers and investors, including Goldman Sachs, Draper VC, and k9 Ventures, one of the original investors in ridesharing app Lyft. In early 2021 Carta announced a new service, CartaX. A trading platform and funding avenue with regulatory and compliance procedures built-in.
Carta's goal is to create the first 'private stock market for companies.' Other players have recently been making waves, most notably Caplight and Forge, both of which offer shares in private and pre-IPO companies. Now well established as the destination for startups, Carta is on track to maintain a controlling position in this previously untapped industry.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Benefits
- Carta Business School
- Fertility coverage and parental leave
- Book reimbursement
- Mental health coverage
- 401K matching
- Liquidity events
Funding (last 2 of 8 rounds)
Aug 2021
$500m
SERIES G
May 2020
$180m
SERIES F
Total funding: $1.1bn
This company has top investors
Leadership
Henry Ward
(CEO)Background in finance and technology, they were the Founder and CEO of Secondsight, a portfolio optimization platform for retail investors before founding Carta.