EShares

Market position

The company positions itself as infrastructure connecting asset issuers and owners; Business Insider referred to it as "the NASDAQ for private companies" in reference to CartaX before that exchange closed. It acquired competitors including Silicon Valley Bank's valuation arm and UK-based Capdesk, and was included in Forbes' Cloud 100 (2022) and Fintech 50 (2019) lists.

Technology

The platform digitizes stock certificates, options, warrants and derivatives, providing an electronic workflow for issuance, signing and acceptance of shares and options, plus a centralized dashboard for tracking ownership, issuance timing and pricing, and holder willingness to sell. Additional modules handle valuations, equity plans, portfolio investments and LP reporting, and, following the Avantia acquisition, legal and compliance workflows through Carta Law.

Go-to-market

Distribution has been supported by venture capital firms that recommend the software for cap table management across their portfolio companies, by platform partnerships such as the 2016 integration with Zenefits' HR platform, and by international expansion of software marketing following the Series C.

Privately held companies, particularly venture-backed technology startups, along with their founders, employees and shareholders; venture capital and investment firms managing portfolios and reporting to limited partners; and, as an intended expansion area, public companies. Named customers include Slack, Calendly, Affirm and MongoDB.

Geography

Headquartered at 333 Bush Street in San Francisco, California, with earlier records listing Palo Alto, California. Funding was directed toward international expansion, and the company acquired UK-based Capdesk in 2022.

History

Founded in 2012 as eShares, the company raised a $17 million Series B led by Spark Capital in August 2015. In October 2016 it partnered with cloud-based HR company Zenefits to add equity management to Zenefits' platform. On September 1, 2017 it acquired Silicon Valley Bank's valuation business, Silicon Valley Bank Analytics, and in October 2017 closed a $42 million Series C led by Menlo Ventures and Social Capital, adding Matt Murphy and Arjun Sethi to its board. In November 2017 Ward announced the company would begin doing business as Carta. A $80 million Series D at an $800 million valuation followed in December 2018, a $300 million Series E at a $1.7 billion valuation led by Andreessen Horowitz in May 2019, and a Series F in 2020 that valued the company at $3.1 billion. CartaX launched in January 2021, and UK competitor Capdesk was acquired in September 2022. CartaX was shut down in 2024, the same year the company's valuation was reported to have fallen below $2 billion. In May 2026 the company acquired Avantia, an AI-powered legal and compliance platform for asset managers, and launched Carta Law.

Risks & controversies

In July 2020 former marketing executive Emily Kramer filed a San Francisco lawsuit alleging gender discrimination, retaliation and violation of the California Equal Pay Act, and the company was covered by the New York Times in August 2020 over alleged mistreatment of employees. In 2020 Lisa Whittaker was hired from UBS to address what she described as a "toxic, boys club" culture. An October 2023 suit by former employee Alexandra Rogers alleged she was groped by Chief Revenue Officer Jeff Perry at a 2022 work event; it settled in 2025 and was the fourth public discrimination-related case settled since 2023. CartaX was shut down in 2024 following a customer data scandal, and the company's valuation was reported that year to have fallen below $2 billion, roughly 75% off its 2022 peak.