Carta IPO: Will Carta Stock Begin Trading Next Year?

Explore ways to buy Carta stock as we approach a potential IPO date. Get access to pre-IPO startups like OpenAI, Databricks, and Anthropic via the Fundrise Innovation Fund. 

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Notable Carta News

08/29/2024: Public acquires Carta’s startup marketplace accounts
01/08/2024: Should Carta Facilitate Secondary Trading?
08/13/2021: Carta raises $500 million at $7.4 billion valuation
Older news…

About Carta

eShares, Inc (doing business as Carta) is a cloud software-as-a-service startup that helps private businesses manage equity ownership, capitalization tables, and 409A valuations. It also offers solutions for venture capital firms to manage funds, special purpose vehicles (SPVs), and portfolios.

The startup was founded in 2012 by Henry Ward and Manu Kumar to simplify the complexities of cap table management, a task that startups often struggle with as they grow.

Carta’s mission is to “create more owners” by democratizing ownership through increasing transparency in private markets.

The company started by replacing the old paper stock certificates with digitization. It then expanded into comprehensive equity management and governance.

Carta’s core product is its equity management software platform, which helps companies and their shareholders track ownership, manage investments, and ensure regulatory compliance.

As of October 2024, the company managed shares of more than 2.8 million equity owners. 

Here’s a brief Carta introduction video: 

Ownership

Carta is a venture-backed startup, counting at least 30 venture capital firms as investors. Employees and the founders also make up a significant portion of equity ownership. 

Carta has raised more than $1.1 billion in venture capital funding. The latest round was a Series G raising $500 million that was completed in August 2021. 

Prominent venture capital investors include Founder Friendly Labs, Structure Capital, K9 Ventures, Spark Capital, Industry Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Social Capital, Flexport, Meritech Capital Partners, Tribe Capital, Lightspeed, Andreessen Horowitz, Tiger Global Management, Thrive Capital, Goldman Sachs, Sand Hill Angels, BluePointe Ventures, Silver Lake, and Moonshots Capital.

Funding Rounds

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Valuation

The last confirmed Carta valuation is $7.4 billion based on the Series G funding round that completed in August 2021. However, that round took place during the height of the IPO and SPAC frenzy of 2021. 

Carta’s private marketplace valuation is now substantially lower. Data from pre-IPO marketplaces such as Hiive and Caplight suggest the Carta valuation is closer to $3.3 billion as of Q4 2024. 

IPO Potential

The Carta IPO date is unknown. The company is one of dozens that raised upsized rounds in 2021 but have since lost value well below their peak funding rounds. 

These “zombie” startups risk alienating peak round investors if they decide to IPO at a lower valuation, choosing to stay public for now. 

Carta encountered some controversy in early 2024 when it became evident a salesperson in Carta’s secondary marketplace business unit improperly accessed confidential company information from Carta’s equity management platform. 

The loss of trust caused the CEO to end the secondary trading business, eventually selling its customer list to an online broker called Public. 

We’ll get clues about a future Carta IPO date when we learn about the hiring of an underwriter, an S-1 filing is submitted, or reporting discloses a date range. For now, we do not expect Carta to file for an IPO until its private valuation recovers or the public IPO markets begin thriving again. 

How to Invest in Carta Stock

Most investors will not be able to own Carta stock via pre-IPO investing platforms because they require the investor to be accredited. 

When the Carta IPO date arrives, it will still be difficult for most investors to acquire IPO shares. 

The most likely way investors will be able to own Carta stock is to wait for the IPO and buy shares after it goes public. There may be other opportunities to own the stock before the IPO. 

Here are some potential options to own Carta stock before, during, and after the IPO.

1. Buy Carta Pre-IPO

Carta stock may become available on pre-IPO investing platforms before the IPO. 

This happens when employees or other early investors want to liquidate shares before the public offering. 

Investors must be accredited to be eligible to buy pre-IPO shares directly. To participate, they should be registered on pre-IPO investing platforms to receive notifications when shares become available. 

Investors can monitor pre-IPO investing platforms such as Hiive, Forge Global, EquityZen, and Linqto for share availability. 

These platforms have minimum investments that range from $2,500 to $50,000 or more. 

Joining pre-IPO investing platforms is free. But each venue and deal may have a minimum investment amount, varying by the deal. 

Non-accredited investors can own pre-IPO companies via venture capital funds targeted to retail investors. Venture capital funds are a new asset class that emerged in 2022.

The Fundrise Innovation Fund (review) is an excellent option for non-accredited investors as of late 2024. The fund holds companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, Databricks, Canva, ServiceTitan and more. 

Please note: This is a testimonial in partnership with Fundrise. We earn a commission from partner links on AccessIPOs.com. All opinions are my own.

Check out our list of top pre-IPO investing platforms that may have shares available.

2. Participate in the Carta IPO

IPO investors may find opportunities to invest during the eventual initial public offering, able to acquire shares at the IPO price before the stock begins trading.

Formerly exclusive to Wall Street’s best customers, IPO access is now more attainable to retail investors.

Online brokers, including the ones listed below, give customers free access to IPOs, even with low account balances. 

• TradeStation 
• Robinhood 

TradeStation has a more established track record of accessing more than 360 IPOs and secondary offerings via its partnership with Click Markets.

Robinhood has the advantage of Silicon Valley networks and a history of getting allocations for high-profile IPOs, making it a good candidate for the Carta IPO. 

Check out this list of best brokers for IPO investing to learn more about IPO access for retail investors.

3. Buy after the Carta IPO

Though waiting for the IPO can be painstaking, there are advantages to waiting for the stock to become publicly traded before owning. 

The IPO allows investors to review more established financials after the first quarter of trading. Pre-IPO investing has limited financials available. 

IPO stock prices typically rise with high-demand companies and valuations can become exaggerated. IPO investors can benefit if they’re in early and sell when the price overheats, but may suffer if prices revert to fair valuations. 

Many IPOs start with high valuations. Then the stock falls once the first and second quarterly earnings reports become available.

The stock price declines after the IPOs could become excellent entry points if you were not allocated IPO shares. 

Avoid buying overvalued shares immediately after the IPO. Shares often fall after the IPO due to lockup expirations and quarterly earnings disappointments. 

However, the most disruptive companies will be higher in a decade. Patience pays. 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Is Carta Publicly Traded?

No. Carta is not publicly traded.

What is the Carta stock price?

A public Carta stock price doesn’t trade yet. It’s a private company.

The Series G funding round completed in August 2021 priced at $40.30 per share. Pre-IPO marketplace data from Hiive and Caplight suggest the share price is closer to $18-$20 per share as of Q3 2024.

What is the Carta stock symbol?

We’ll learn what the Carta stock symbol will be once Carta officially files for an IPO via Form S-1 with the SEC.

We can speculate a little about what the Carta ticker will be. The most likely candidate is the following:

• CRTA

Note that “CART” is already occupied by Maplebear, Inc. (Instacart). 

Where is the Carta IPO S-1 Filing?

A Carta S-1 filing has not been filed confidentially or private. The document will become available if the company submits it to the SEC and the regulatory commission approves and releases it to the public. 

We’ll post a copy of the S-1 filing on this page when it becomes available.  

You can monitor the most recent S-1 IPO filings on this website.

Carta News Archive

08/13/2021: Price discovery in private markets
05/06/2019: Carta was just valued at $1.7 billion in Series E
12/27/2018: Carta valued at $800M with new funding
10/11/2017: eShares raises $42 million

Conclusion

Investors get excited when they identify companies riding extraordinary macroeconomic trends. Cloud SaaS companies like Carta get a lot of attention because of their recurring revenue models and scalability. 

Furthermore, Carta is a more visible startup within the startup and venture capital communities because most companies in the space use the software.

Carta is a relatively unknown entity in the broader amateur investing population. 

Pre-IPO investing platforms have recently opened more opportunities for individual investors to own private stocks like Carta. Carta was even part of this trend until it closed its secondary markets business due to conflicts of interest with its core business. 

But venture capital investing is still primarily reserved for the ultra-wealthy, requiring millions to invest in seed and early funding rounds for disruptive companies. 

So if you decide to pursue IPO shares or early equity in Carta, maintain reasonable expectations. It may be challenging, expensive, or require substantial capital to invest. 

If the Carta IPO is on your watch list, good luck. Invest in pre-IPO stocks and IPO companies with caution.

* Disclosure: The web page contains affiliate links from our partners. If a reader opens an account or buys a service from a link in this article, we may be compensated at no additional cost to the reader. Opening an account with a broker that provides access to IPOs does not guarantee the customer allocations of specific IPOs. The author is long the Fundrise Innovation Fund, ARK Venture Fund and HOOD.