Carta — Startup Profile

Equity management, fund administration, 409A valuations, and liquidity platform for private companies, investors, and employees

HQ: San Francisco, CA, USA | Founded: 2012 | Funding: ~$1.2B-1.29B disclosed equity across Series B-G + secondaries | Website: https://carta.com

About

Carta is a San Francisco-based private-capital platform founded in 2012 as eShares by Henry Ward and Manu Kumar and renamed Carta in 2017. It provides cap table management, 409A valuations (claiming >16,000 valuations/year), equity compensation, fund administration (Event Based Accounting, $250B+ AUA across ~9,000 funds and SPVs), liquidity/tender-offer infrastructure, and — via the May 2026 acquisition of Avantia — Carta Law legal/compliance services on a pay-as-you-go fixed-fee model. Carta is an SEC-registered transfer agent (eShares, Inc. DBA Carta, Inc.), recording ownership changes, maintaining security-holder records, and issuing/cancelling certificates. The company serves 55,000+ companies, 10K+ investment firms/SPVs, and 1.7M+ equity holders. Its trajectory: $17M Series B (2015, Spark Capital) → $42M Series C (2017, Menlo Ventures + Social Capital) → $80M Series D at $800M (2018, Tribe Capital + Meritech) → $300M Series E at $1.7B (2019, Andreessen Horowitz) → Series F at $3.1B (2020) → $500M Series G at $7.4B (2021, Silver Lake) → $8.5B secondary mark (Jan 2022) → exit from own secondary trading (Jan 2024) and reported ~$2B secondary (June 2024, unconfirmed). Recent moves include the Sequoia Group compensation-advisory partnership (July 2025), Claude AI plugins (launched April 2026, 1,500+ companies by broad availability), Carta Law/Avantia (May 2026), a NewView Capital tender-offer collaboration (Sept 2026), and capturing customers from the shutting-down Pulley (Dec 2026). Carta Data publishes private-market research (tender offers, fundraising benchmarks) used industry-wide.

The Take

Carta, founded 2012 as eShares by Henry Ward and Manu Kumar, became the default operating system for private-company equity — cap tables, 409A valuations, fund administration, and liquidity — now trusted by 55,000+ companies, 10K+ investment firms/SPVs, and 1.7M+ equity holders. It raised $500M Series G in August 2021 led by Silver Lake at a $7.4B valuation (company-confirmed via CFO bio), with an $8.5B mark from a January 2022 employee secondary. Then came the reckoning: exit from its own secondary-trading business (Jan 9, 2024) after conflict-of-interest criticism, a reported secondary sale attempting to mark the company at ~$2B (June 2024, ~75% below peak; completion unconfirmed per Sacra), and four discrimination-related lawsuit settlements since 2023 (gender-discrimination suit settled Jan 2025). The 2025-2026 rebound is real: Sacra estimates $515M revenue for 2025 (+16.5% YoY); fund admin supports $250B+ AUA; H1 2026 saw 70+ tender offers worth $3B on Carta (+200% YoY); Carta acquired Avantia to launch Carta Law (May 2026); exclusive Sequoia Group (comp advisory firm — not Sequoia Capital) compensation partnership (July 2025); Claude AI plugins with 1,500+ companies using them; and competitor Pulley announced shutdown (Dec 8, 2026) directing customers to Carta. CEO transition premise: the user's referenced 'Clark Lundberg' is false — that name belongs to a SDSU economics professor with no Carta connection; Henry Ward remains CEO.

Key Metrics

Latest Valuation: ~$2B (reported secondary, June 2024; completion/final terms unconfirmed per Sacra); Series G mark $7.4B (2021, company-confirmed); $8.5B Jan 2022 secondary (Sacra, Contrary)
Last Round: $500M Series G, Aug 13 2021, led by Silver Lake (Lightspeed also cited), $7.4B valuation (company CFO bio confirms $7.4B; Wikipedia lists $8.5B — see notes)
Total Funding: ~$1.2B (Wikipedia) / $1.29B (stockanalysis.com) disclosed equity
ARR / Revenue: $515M (2025 est., Sacra, +16.5% YoY); ~$370M in 2024 per Henry Ward breakdown ($250M cap table, $100M fund admin, $20M private — aggregator-reported); CRO claims $500M+ ARR (carta.com)
Assets Under Administration: $250B+ fund admin AUA (CPO bio, 2026); ~$188B / ~9,000 funds & SPVs (July 2025 PR)
Paying Customers: 55,000+ companies; 10K+ investment firms/SPVs; 1.7M+ equity holders (carta.com)
Employees: ~1,600-2,000 (Wikipedia 1,618 in 2022; UpGuard 2k+ Oct 2026)
Founded: 2012 (as eShares; renamed Carta 2017)
CEO: Henry Ward (Co-Founder) — still CEO as of Oct 2026

Funding Rounds

Round: $17M (2015-08) — Spark Capital
Round: $42M (2017-10) — Menlo Ventures + Social Capital
Round: $80M (2018-12) — Tribe Capital + Meritech Capital
Round: $300M (2019-05) — Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)
Round: Not disclosed (2020) — Not disclosed
Round: $500M (2021-08-13) — Silver Lake (Lightspeed also cited as co-lead by some sources)
Round: Not disclosed (2022-01) — New investors buying employee shares
Round: Not disclosed (2024-06-06) — Reported secondary sale of existing shares (not a primary round)

Key People

Henry Ward
Charly Kevers
Jeff Perry
Vrushali Paunikar
Nick Avery
Manu Kumar

Key Competitors

Pulley —
EquityZen —
Nasdaq Private Market —
Hiive —
Leqal —
Qapita —
Ledgy —

Timeline Highlights

2026-10-17: Henry Ward verified still CEO
2026-09-23: NewView Capital collaboration on tender offers
2026-09-16: Pulley (rival) shutting down; customers directed to Carta
2026-H1: Tender-offer surge: 70+ offers, $3B volume, +200% YoY
2026-05: Acquires Avantia → launches Carta Law (4th deal in 8 months)
2026-04: Carta Plugins for Claude launched (initial)
2025-07-09: Sequoia Group exclusive compensation-advisory partnership
2025-01: Settles gender-discrimination lawsuit (fourth discrimination case since 2023)
2024-06-06: Reported secondary sale at ~$2B valuation (~75% below peak)
2024-01-09: Exits secondary-trading business
2023-10: Lawsuits emerge (discrimination/harassment)
2022-09: Acquires Capdesk
2022-01: Employee secondary sale at $8.5B mark
2021-08-13: $500M Series G at $7.4B (Silver Lake) — unicorn+
2020: Series F at $3.1B valuation
2019-05: $300M Series E at $1.7B (Andreessen Horowitz)
2018-12: $80M Series D at $800M (Tribe Capital + Meritech)
2017-10: $42M Series C (Menlo Ventures + Social Capital); renamed Carta
2015-08: $17M Series B led by Spark Capital
2012: Founded as eShares by Henry Ward & Manu Kumar

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