The company
Carta is an SEC-registered transfer agent that helps companies issue, value and transfer securities.
Founded in 2012, Carta started by helping private companies manage their cap tables. Since then it has expanded into valuations, investor services and public markets. Carta now supports 7,000+ companies, 250,000+ stakeholders, and has valued over $200 billion in private assets.
The solution
Carta's equity management platform helps private companies scale through every stage of growth, and can transition companies through an IPO and into the public markets. Additionally, Carta's powerful reporting and administrative tools keep companies in compliance with the latest SEC and IRS regulations.
Carta's technology enables:
- Private companies to manage all forms of equity, and at scale
- An all-in-one equity platform for public companies
- Investors to manage portfolios of all sizes
- Individual equity ownership portals
Carta is the leading provider of 409A valuations and electronic security issuance for private companies. With every transaction happening on Carta, companies never have to worry about who has the "final" version of their cap table.
The software also consolidates the fragmented process of raising capital into an easy place to share documents, collect signatures and transfer funds. Carta also helps companies run stock buybacks and secondaries to provide liquidity for employees and shareholders.
How we work with DLA Piper
DLA Piper played a role in facilitating market acceptance of Carta's electronic stock certificates. Until this decade, private companies relied on paper stock certificates and only switched to book-entry stock in broker "street name" after going public. When Carta was first introduced, issuer law firms balked at opining on their validity, which investors customarily require, and companies were slow to adopt them as a result. In 2013, DLA Piper was asked by Carta to render advice in support of the legality of electronic stock certificates, which Carta used to jumpstart broader acceptance. Carta's eShares is a standard market instrument.
DLA Piper is involved in Carta's Partner Program. Learn more.