I am considering interviewing with Carta. What's the current valuation? How is the forecast for the next few years? Any pros/cons?
We're at around 7.5 B for now. When you join, might be higher. It depends on how much investors are willing to pay for the shares in cartax events( a couple of times per year). Cata's growth is accelaraing and we're expecting the same for next couple of years. But prediction could be wrong. Reviews in blind are mostly reflecting the reality.
As others state around 7.5B for now. Your RSUs are liquitable via Carta X which is a plus, as you’ll be able to sell some even though it is private equity. Although there are some restrictions around selling your shares on Carta X that tbh my recruiter did not disclose when I joined. So something to keep in mind ie. You can’t just sell all your shares the second you get them. In terms of future valuations - overall carta has a very stick product in the private equity space. The last big X in valuation was a result of Carta X and the potential in it. If Carta X is a big success and there is a lot of adoption then I see more big growth potential (not even considering other R&D efforts). If it’s not a big success I would expect slower or stagnant growth.. but still like I said Carta is already a sticky and well accepted product in the space.
Appreciate your response. Just curious are there any other companies using CartaX? Also, you mentioned you cannot sell all your shares on CartaX as soon as you get them. If there a different vesting schedule for liquidating on CartaX?
No one is using CartaX- huge fail so far. We’re also barely allowed to sell (not to mention people who leave have been frozen out of selling at all) so the liquidity is much overhyped so far. Many late stage startups offer more liquidity. Not more frequent but a higher percentage of holdings.
You can only sell 25%/ quarter . Plus there is settlement times to take into account . Now we are moving towards tender offers so the upsides are severely limited. You can’t compare public or pre ipo offers to that of Carta. We hire a level below rest of the industry. And our comps are not comparable to that of the market. We pay at 70% to comparable companies. We have limited hiring numbers adjusted to our growth projections this year. My humble opinion is we will not grow like the last years for at the least next 2 to 3 years
Thanks this is useful information. I'm considering an offer and the comp from levels.fyi data is lower than what I'd expect which would be understandable if the growth was there
Happy to help. If you have any questions, feel free to dm me
It raised fund at 7.4B valuation last August. Consider what happens in the market and particularly to all the Fintech companies, it should worth at most half of 7.4. But likely they will still give you offer at 7.4B with a rosy picture :)
Carta shares are liquid, you can sell a couple of times each year. If you can sell at "7.4B" valuation and the price is still going up, why do the shares worth at most half?
what you sell is at private market, which is totally different from the public market sentiment