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Carta
also invests · investor profileUnicorn · $3.1BSan Francisco, US · Founded 2012 · 3,180 employees on LinkedIn · 82 known investors
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Carta is a cloud-based ERP platform for private capital markets that manages cap tables, equity administration, fund management, and valuations for startups, private companies, and venture funds globally. The platform connects workflows and data across the private markets ecosystem, serving over 50,000 companies across more than 160 countries.
Also known as Carta, Inc. · eShares · eShares, Inc.
Founders & leadership
Carta was founded in 2012 by Henry Ward and Manu Kumar.
Investors · 82
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Valuation · disclosed
Disclosed eventsSource: SEC prospectus filings, and round valuations the company or its investors disclosed — follow each entry's link for the claim.
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Carta, legally eShares, Inc. doing business as Carta, Inc., is a San Francisco-based software company specializing in capitalization table management and valuation software for private companies, investors, and employees. The platform digitizes paper stock certificates as well as stock options, warrants, and derivatives, and lets issuers track ownership, dilution, share issuance timing and pricing through a centralized dashboard. Beyond cap tables, the company sells 409A valuations, equity plan administration, fund administration, fund tax, portfolio and forecasting tools, and—following its May 2026 acquisition of Avantia—legal and compliance workflows under the Carta Law brand.
The company positions its product as an "agentic ERP" for private capital, marketing connectivity across equity management, fund administration, legal and compliance, plus AI features including Carta Plugins that expose cap table, fund admin, and CRM tasks inside Claude. Venture firms use the platform to administer funds and SPVs and manage portfolios. Carta also publishes recurring private-markets research, including its State of Private Markets series, Fund Economics Report, quarterly VC fund performance data, and the Table Stakes studies on equity gaps by gender, race, ethnicity, and geography.
Carta previously operated CartaX, a private stock exchange launched in January 2021 that allowed employees and shareholders to sell private shares ahead of an IPO or acquisition; it was shut down in 2024 following a customer data scandal.
Founding story
Carta was founded in August 2012 as eShares by Henry Ward and Manu Kumar, founder of K9 Ventures, to digitize paper stock certificates and let venture-backed companies electronically manage equity, issue securities, and track cap tables. Ward became CEO and Kumar became chairman. The company traces the founding idea to a 2010 question about putting cap tables in the cloud.
Business model
Carta sells software and associated professional services to private companies, fund managers, and their service providers. Products span cap table and equity management, 409A valuations (originally launched as a subscription-based service), fund administration, fund tax, and legal/compliance, with the company emphasizing consolidation of multiple functions onto one platform. Carta also employs in-house fund administrators, tax experts, and analysts who deliver service alongside the software.
Software and services sold to companies and funds; the 409A valuation offering was introduced as a subscription-based service. Carta states it crossed $500 million in ARR in 2025.
Traction
The website reports 50,000+ companies, 1.7 million+ equity holders, $4.5 trillion+ in assets on platform, $220 billion+ in assets under administration, 9,000+ funds and SPVs, $380 billion+ in portfolio equity value, and $1.2 trillion+ raised by companies on the platform. The company says it crossed $500 million in ARR in 2025. As of August 2022 it was reported to track over $2.5 trillion in company equity and to have facilitated $13 billion in secondary-market sales. Startups on Carta raised $119.5 billion across 4,859 rounds in 2025, and 396 tender offers were conducted on the platform that year.
Latest developments
In May 2026 Carta acquired Avantia, an AI-powered legal and compliance platform for asset managers, and launched Carta Law, integrating legal and compliance workflows into its fund operations platform. In July 2026 it introduced Carta Plugins for Claude, embedding cap table, fund admin, and CRM tasks into the Claude workspace. Recent research output includes the Fund Economics Report 2025 (December 2025), State of Private Markets: 2025 in review (February 2026), and Q4 2025 VC Fund Performance (March 2026). In 2025 Carta settled a discrimination lawsuit brought by a former employee.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
Carta describes itself as the connected global platform for private capital and reports that 85% of US unicorns use a Carta cap table and that 80% of VC-backed companies rely on it for 409A valuations. Business Insider previously described the company as "the NASDAQ for private companies" in reference to CartaX. Reported valuation fell below $2 billion in 2024, about 75% down from its 2022 peak.
Carta emphasizes end-to-end consolidation—cap table, valuations, equity compensation, fund administration, fund tax, and legal/compliance sharing one data set—plus network effects from having companies, investors, and advisors on the same system, in-house expert services, and AI/agentic tooling integrated into customer workflows.
Technology
Cloud-based equity and fund operations software that digitizes stock certificates, options, warrants, and derivatives; dynamic cap tables; proprietary software supporting 409A valuation delivery; and AI/agentic capabilities including context-aware monitoring, process automation, and Carta Plugins that connect live Carta data to Claude for querying books, scenario modeling, and workflow automation.
Go-to-market
Direct sales via demo requests on its website, self-described network effects across the private-markets ecosystem (companies, investors, and their advisors on the same platform), content and data marketing through research reports and educational guides, and distribution partnerships with Morgan Stanley at Work, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, and NYSE. An earlier initiative, Carta Ventures (announced February 2020), offered to lead or co-lead seed rounds for founding teams building adjacent products with access to Carta's APIs, office space, and customer base.
Venture-backed startups and their founders and employees, private companies, venture capital and private equity funds and SPVs, limited partners, and accounting and advisory firms. Named or cited customers include Slack, Calendly, Affirm, and logos displayed on the website such as Airtable, Notion, Brex, Uncork Capital, Base10, and Grant Thornton.
Geography
Headquartered at 333 Bush Street, San Francisco, California. Serves customers in more than 160 countries with 1,900+ employees across 15 locations: San Francisco, New York, Seattle, Sandy (Utah), Santa Clara, Hamilton Township (New Jersey), Washington DC, Kitchener-Waterloo and Toronto in Canada, Rio de Janeiro, London, Abu Dhabi (regulated by the ADGM Financial Services Regulatory Authority), Singapore, Hong Kong, and Sydney.
History
eShares was founded in August 2012 and launched 409A valuations as a second product in March 2014. It raised a $17 million Series B led by Spark Capital in August 2015, partnered with Zenefits in October 2016, and acquired Silicon Valley Bank's valuation business (Silicon Valley Bank Analytics) on September 1, 2017. In October 2017 it raised a $42 million Series C led by Menlo Ventures and Social Capital, and in November 2017 rebranded from eShares to Carta, a name inspired by the Magna Carta. Fund Administration launched in April 2018; a $80 million Series D at an $800 million valuation followed in December 2018, and a $300 million Series E at $1.7 billion led by Andreessen Horowitz in May 2019. A Series F in 2020 valued the company at $3.1 billion. CartaX launched in January 2021 and was shut down in 2024. Carta acquired London-based equity management platforms Vauban and Capdesk in June and August/September 2022, acquired fund forecasting company Tactyc in October 2024, announced an exclusive partnership with Morgan Stanley at Work in November 2024, named NYSE its preferred listing venue for private companies in September 2025, and acquired Avantia while launching Carta Law in May 2026.
Risks & controversies
Wikipedia documents several employment-related disputes: a July 2020 lawsuit by former marketing executive Emily Kramer alleging gender discrimination, retaliation, and violation of the California Equal Pay Act; New York Times coverage in August 2020 of alleged mistreatment of employees; and an October 2023 suit by former employee Alexandra Rogers alleging she was groped by Chief Revenue Officer Jeff Perry at a June 2022 work event, settled in 2025 as the fourth public discrimination-related case the company had settled since 2023. A 2020 hire from UBS was tasked with addressing what she described as a "toxic, boys club" culture. The CartaX private stock exchange was shut down in 2024 following a customer data scandal, and the company's valuation was reported in 2024 to have fallen below $2 billion, roughly 75% off its 2022 peak.
Compiled by commissioned research from 13 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Founder mafia
The Carta mafia →26 people who came through Carta went on to found or lead other companies.
Related companies · 6
Companies working in the same space as Carta.
Timeline · 34
launches, deals, and filingsCarta introduced Plugins that embed equity and private capital workflows into Claude, allowing users to query live books, model scenarios, and automate cap table, fund admin, and CRM tasks.
Carta acquired Avantia, an AI-powered legal and compliance platform for asset managers, and launched Carta Law, integrating legal and compliance workflows with its fund operations platform.
Carta acquired Avantia, an AI-powered legal and compliance platform for asset managers, and launched Carta Law, integrating legal and compliance workflows with its fund operations platform.
Carta published its annual private markets report covering fundraising, valuations, dilution and deal terms among startups on its platform.
Carta unveiled NYSE as its preferred listing venue for private companies and integrated Morgan Stanley Wealth Management services into its platform.
Carta became a new investor in SimpleClosure's $15 million Series A led by TTV Capital, after retiring its own startup winddown product, and offered its customers a free consultation and 10% discount on SimpleClosure's services.
$15M source ↗
Carta announced an exclusive partnership with Morgan Stanley at Work as its preferred public equity management platform for companies planning to IPO.
Carta acquired Tactyc, a forecasting and planning solution for venture funds.
Carta launched Carta Conclusions, a startup winddown offering, and retired it by December 2024.
Following allegations that Carta contacted a customer's investors about selling shares without consent, CEO Henry Ward announced Carta would exit the secondary trading business, citing trust; the CartaX exchange was shut down in 2024.
Following allegations that Carta contacted a customer's investors about selling shares without consent, CEO Henry Ward announced Carta would exit the secondary trading business, which he said generated about $3 million per year.
The CartaX private stock exchange was shuttered in 2024 following a customer data scandal.
Former employee Alexandra Rogers filed suit in San Francisco alleging she was groped at a work happy hour in June 2022 by Chief Revenue Officer Jeff Perry; Perry and Carta settled in 2025, the fourth public discrimination-related case settled by the company since 2023.
Carta acquired Vauban and Capdesk, two London-based equity management platforms, in June and August 2022 to expand in Europe and the UK. Wikipedia dates the Capdesk acquisition to September 2022 and reports the sum was undisclosed.
Carta announced Carta Launch, a free platform for early-stage founders with 25 or fewer stakeholders and under $1M raised, including automated SAFEs, equity issuance, scenario modeling and Carta Insights compensation benchmarks.
Carta introduced Carta Launch, a free platform for early-stage founders with 25 or fewer stakeholders and under $1 million raised, including cap table software, automated SAFEs, equity issuance and Carta Insights compensation data.
Carta launched CartaX to let employees and shareholders sell private shares before an IPO or acquisition; in February the company sold just under $100 million of its own stock on the venue.
Carta launched CartaX, a private stock exchange allowing employees and shareholders to sell private shares before an IPO or acquisition.
Former marketing executive Emily Kramer filed suit in San Francisco alleging gender discrimination, retaliation, and violation of the California Equal Pay Act.
Carta announced Carta Ventures, offering to lead or co-lead seed rounds for founding teams building three specified startup ideas (total compensation, portfolio analytics, sell-side research for CartaX), with API access, office space, and executive access.
Carta announced Carta Ventures, offering to lead or co-lead seed rounds, provide API access, office space and executive access for founding teams building three named startup ideas: total compensation, portfolio analytics and a private-markets sell-side research firm.
Carta announced Carta Ventures, an initiative to fund and lead or co-lead seed rounds for founding teams building companies in total compensation, venture portfolio analytics, and sell-side research for private markets.
Carta hired Lisa Whittaker from UBS to address what she described as the company's 'toxic, boys club' culture.
Carta announced departure pay for all employees while removing separation agreements and legal documents; it was among the first to extend option exercise windows for departing employees.
Carta launches Fund Administration for managing venture capital investments and related workflows.
CEO Henry Ward announces eShares will do business as Carta, a name inspired by the Magna Carta.
CEO Henry Ward announced in a blog post that eShares would begin doing business under the name Carta.
eShares acquired Silicon Valley Bank's valuation business, Silicon Valley Bank Analytics (SVBA).
eShares partners with cloud-based HR company Zenefits to add equity management to the Zenefits platform.
eShares partnered with cloud-based HR company Zenefits to add equity management to the Zenefits platform.
eShares launches 409A valuations as a subscription-based service, its second product after cap tables.
Henry Ward and Manu Kumar found eShares to digitize paper stock certificates for startups and investors; Ward becomes CEO and Kumar chairman.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
▸Research sources · 13
primary sources listed
- Cartacarta.com · web
13 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Carta do?
- Carta (formerly eShares) builds cap table, equity management, fund administration, valuation and compliance software for private capital.
- Who founded Carta?
- Carta was founded by Henry Ward, Manu Kumar in 2012.
- Who are Carta's investors?
- Carta's investors include 4DX Ventures, A*, Adventure Fund, Align Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Amity Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Anthemis Venture and 74 more.
- Where is Carta headquartered?
- Carta is headquartered in San Francisco, US.