US-based equity management software provider Carta has launched a corporate venture capital fund called Carta Ventures.
Founded in 2012 as eShares, Carta has created a software platform that helps startup owners, early employees, companies and investors manage their equity stakes and analyse their valuation and performance. It was valued at $1.7bn as of its May 2019 series E round.
The vehicle is looking to lead or co-lead seed rounds for companies developing technologies covering areas such as equity compensation information or portfolio analysis.
Carta is also on the eye out for sell-side research providers that can support CartaX, the private equity exchange it intends to launch later this year, with reliable information that can help assess value.
In addition to funding, the company is offering working space, access to its infrastructure and APIs, and personal advice from chief executive Henry Ward. James McGillicuddy, head of strategy for Carta, told TechCrunch the fund will be financed through its balance sheet.
Ward said in a blog post announcing the launch: “Carta is a fun company because the more problems we solve, the more problems we get to solve. Today we have more problems to solve than bandwidth to solve them. But we still want these problems to be solved.”
