Equity management solution Carta has been valued at $7.4bn, following the close of a $500m Series G round.
In between the Series G and the Series F, which had closed on $180m in 2020, Carta held an auction for its shares. This was conducted through the CartaX platform, which claims to be a “Nasdaq for private markets.”
The company’s CEO Henry Ward stated the auction with an explanation to all investors about Carta, which all participating investors could watch and ask questions. They could also access the data services of CartaX.
This auction helped bring the company’s valuation up from $3.1bn to $6.9bn. Carta also stated it managed to raise $100m in secondary sales.
This helped Carta pick a lead investor for its Series F, with the company picking Silver Lake.
Ward said, “Having a marketplace set price is simpler and easier than discovering price manually. But more powerful than simplicity is the better pricing an efficient marketplace gets you. With CartaX we let demand for our stock set the price. It was new for me and our CFO to not have control over where our stock would trade in our January auction.”
He added, “A better price is more important than a “good” valuation. Accurately pricing your stock is a financial tool. It makes M&A cheaper, hiring employees less dilutive, and makes your stock more valuable. And most importantly, having liquidity allows your employees to participate meaningfully in the value they helped create.”
Carta provides companies and investors with tools to manage their cap tables, valuations, investments and equity plans through a single dashboard.
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