What’s new?

Eligible early stage companies will now automatically receive a new draft 409A report the day after their previous one expires.

What’s important about this change?

By automatically sending you a draft of your 409A, we’re removing the need for customers to manually request a new 409A. You will have the opportunity to review and request changes before the new valuation takes effect.

How does it work? 

Carta will draft your report using your Carta cap table information and broader market data of similar companies within the same industry, stage, and size. This allows us to provide an accurate and defensible fair market value (FMV) for use when issuing or exercising options. 

On the day following expiration and if you have not already submitted a request for an updated valuation, Carta will prepare a valuation and send you a notification once the 409A draft is ready for review. You will also see a new task appear in your company dashboard. 

What do I need to do?

All you need to do is review and accept the new FMV. The new FMV will be applied to your account after acceptance.

It is important to note that we assume the following when performing our analysis:

• Your Carta cap table is up-to-date
• No acquisition letter of intent has been signed
• Your company maintains a cash runway of one to two years
• There have been no significant business changes since your previous 409A

If any of these assumptions are incorrect, or if you have questions about your report, contact the Carta Valuation team at 409a@carta.com before accepting your new 409A so we can make adjustments to your concluded FMV.

Who is it available for?

Corporations that have 409A in their subscription and meet the following requirements:

• Series B stage or earlier
• Post-money valuation of less than $100M
• Revenue of less than $20M
• No common stock sales within the last 6 months

In addition, our valuation analysts will conduct individual reviews before sending a draft. 

How do I learn more or get help?

Contact the Carta Valuation Team at 409a@carta.com, or from the 409A ledger in your Carta account. 

Customers can learn more about Flash 409A here.

What’s New?

Shareholders can now see the value of their holdings using marks based on our proprietary Reference Price Range. With just a quick look, shareholders can view their unrealized gains, multiple of invested capital, and the rate of return of their portfolio holdings on Carta.

Interested in locking in unrealized gains or closing out a position shown in the red? Click on the Sell button to start the process of selling your shares.

What metrics are available and how are they calculated?

• Mark: A mark is the price used to value a holding. Your holdings are marked to the lower bound of the Reference Price Range, if Carta has calculated one for the company.
• Shares: Number of vested common and preferred shares currently held.
• Basis: Total cost paid divided by the number of shares.
• Value of shares: Value of shares at the mark. Calculation: Mark * Shares
• Unrealized gains: Unrealized gain (or loss) in value at the mark compared to your purchase price. An unrealized ("paper") gain has not been actualized, but can be by selling an existing holding for more than what was paid for it. Calculation: Value of shares - (Basis * Shares)
  Learn more about the taxes associated with stock sales
• Multiple: Multiple of invested capital (MOIC), meaning how many times greater is the current value of a holding compared to what was paid for it. Calculation: Value of shares / (Basis * Shares)
  Learn more about MOIC
• IRR: Gross unrealized internal rate of return, which is the annualized percent return a holding has earned. IRR is calculated using acquisition dates in alignment with the XIRR function in Excel or Google Sheets. 
  Learn more about IRR

How does it work?

You can view and identify to a Carta representative which holdings you’d like to sell on Carta:

1. Log into Carta’s Secondary Marketplace.
2. View your holdings on the “My holdings” tab.
3. Click on the “Sell” button to submit your indication of interest to sell any of your holdings.

Who is this available to?

This is only available to Carta Liquidity customers. At this time, only Accredited Investors who qualify as Institutional Accounts can purchase securities and only Accredited Investors can sell securities via Carta Liquidity. 

If you’re interested in learning more about Carta Liquidity and get access to the platform, please reach out to investor_coverage@cartacapitalmarkets.com or your account manager.

Disclaimer: Carta, through its wholly owned broker-dealer subsidiary, Carta Capital Markets, LLC, offers a streamlined experience for executing pre-negotiated stock transfers, tender offers, and other secondary liquidity transactions. Carta Capital Markets, LLC is a member of FINRA/SIPC.

The mark displayed by Carta does not represent an executable price or bid/ask spread and does not reflect any market premium/discounts. The fair market value or executable price, if any, for any security may be higher or lower than the provided price. Many unregistered equity securities are subject to transfer restrictions that may limit transfers at any price.

The mark, Reference Price, and Reference Price Range are not investment advice or a recommendation to transact at any price and should not be your primary basis for determining the value of any security.

What’s New?

Carta Liquidity now highlights recently updated key information to help investors stay informed about market changes.

In Carta’s Secondary Marketplace, you can now view and sort by recently updated bids, asks, our proprietary Reference Price Range, and funding rounds.

How does it work?

You can view the latest updates to the marketplace:

1. Log into Carta’s Secondary Marketplace.
2. Click the “Browse” tab to browse the latest updates to the marketplace . 
3. Sort by the most recently updated orders or Reference Price Ranges, as well as latest funding rounds using the sort options on the top right of the screen.

Who is this available to?

This is only available to Carta Liquidity customers. At this time, only Accredited Investors who qualify as Institutional Accounts can purchase securities and only Accredited Investors can sell securities via Carta Liquidity. 

If you’re interested in learning more about Carta Liquidity and get access to the platform, please reach out to investor_coverage@cartacapitalmarkets.com or your account manager.

Disclaimer: Carta, through its wholly owned broker-dealer subsidiary, Carta Capital Markets, LLC, offers a streamlined experience for executing pre-negotiated stock transfers, tender offers, and other secondary liquidity transactions. Carta Capital Markets, LLC is a member of FINRA/SIPC.

What’s new?

This new release gives investors the choice to fund SAFEs online via ACH. By choosing this option investors can quickly fund SAFEs in one-click. 

Why is it valuable?

Direct online funding is the preferred choice for most investors due to improved security, reduced manual entry errors, and hassle-free transfers. But prior to this release, the choice of the method of funding was exclusively made by the company. 

How does it work?

After signing the SAFE, an investor will be provided with two choices:

1. They can add their bank account securely via Plaid or manually to Carta. This is a one-time setup.
2. They can choose to fund via wire, and they will be shown the wire details provided by the company.
   
   

3. Once the funds are received, the SAFE is issued. 

   1. If funding is via ACH, Carta automatically issues the SAFE as soon as the funds are received. 
   2. If funding is via wire transfer, the company needs to indicate when funds have been received in Carta, and the SAFE will be issued. 

What’s new?

Carta has revamped the Exercised and Settled report. The report, used to reconcile exercises, settlements and sales recorded in Carta, now runs from our new reporting engine and comes with improvements and new fields:

• All equity plans in a single report: the updated version includes all of your equity plans within a single report, allowing for easier transactional reconciliation.
• Dedicated Options and RSUs tabs: the improved version provides separate tabs for option exercises and RSU settlements, condensing and simplifying the tabs to show the fields you care about.
• Early exercise: the new report displays which exercises occurred as early exercises, before the underlying shares had vested.
• Payroll ID: all transactions now have their associated stakeholder payroll ID included to improve payroll reconciliation, assuming the ID was input in the platform.
• RSU withhold-to-cover: the report now accounts for the settlements run using Carta's bulk RSU settlement tool, providing information on quantity withheld and quantity released.
• Two FMV fields: to allow for easier reconciliation of FMV at exercise, the Exercised and Settled report now displays two FMV fields -- the FMV as shown to the stakeholder at the time they requested the exercise, and the FMV from the 409A page covering that exercise period.
• Country and state: improve internal controls, tax reporting, and review in case of holders from several different countries/states.

Who is this available for, and how do I access it?

This is available for company admins with Full Access, Company Editor and View-Only permissions, and can be accessed by going to your company account, navigating to Cap Table > Run reports, and selecting the Exercised and Settled report.

What's new?

GPs can now set a capital commitment range for LPs when closing into their fund.

What’s important about this change?

Providing a commitment range gives LPs the flexibility to adjust their investment amount during the closing process. And it gives you the ability to provide a custom closings experience for each investor, from individual to institutional.

How does it work?

Set a commitment range in Carta Closings, before inviting your LPs to close. You can set one range for all LPs closing into your fund or custom ranges for each individual LP.

Once the LP enters this amount, you will receive a notification with the final committed capital amount.

Reach out to your Account Director to learn more about Carta Closings today. 

What’s new?

Carta has revamped the dashboard page for administrators on their cap table. The dashboard now acts as a central hub that consolidates tasks and recommendations across the cap table to help admins understand what needs their attention at the right times. 

Who is this available for?

Company admins with Full Access or Company Editor permissions can see the dashboard page in their company’s cap table view. 

How does it work?

Log into your Carta account and navigate to your company. The dashboard is the first page you arrive at and can also be accessed through the left-side navigation panel. 

Your Tasks

The ‘Your Tasks’ section outlines all to-do items that you can perform for this company.  

Tasks found here may also be found on the main Tasks page, but also include additional action items that must be completed to ensure your company’s cap table is compliant, accurate, and up to date. 

For certain tasks, upon click you’ll be navigated to a dashboard sub-page to complete the action. Example below:

If there are no outstanding tasks, we’ll let you know that you’re all caught up. New tasks will appear over time as needed. 

Recommendations

Recommendations are helpful cards that appear below ‘Your Tasks’ in the dashboard. 

Recommendations highlight information that helps you stay up to date with time-sensitive tax savings, Carta tools that can speed up and simplify cap table management, and insights into employee vesting schedules to help retain talent. 

What’s New?

Carta Liquidity now displays the implied valuation for all price-per-share values in our Secondary Marketplace.

The most frequently asked question from investors is: "What does that price per share represent in terms of valuation?" Our Secondary Marketplace now provides the implied valuation on live orders, and for our proprietary Reference Price Range. Additionally, users can see a live calculation of the implied valuation when entering an indication of interest.

How does it work?

You can view implied valuations for price-per-share values on Carta:

1. Log into Carta’s Secondary Marketplace.
2. Click the “Browse” tab to view the valuation information associated with the best priced orders on Carta and our proprietary Reference Price Range. 
3. Click the “View company details” on a company to view the valuation information associated with all other orders for that company on Carta.

You can submit indications to buy or sell shares on Carta:

1. Log into Carta’s Secondary Marketplace.
2. Click on the “Sell” button on the Sell tab to submit your indication of interest to sell any of your holdings.
3. Alternatively, click on the “Buy” button on the Buy tab to submit your indication of interest to buy shares of a company.
4. In either case, when entering the “Target price per share” to sell or buy at, an implied valuation of your target price will calculate live.
5. If you don’t see supply in a company you’re interested in, submit an indication of interest to buy on the "Browse" tab

Who is this available to?

This is only available to Carta Liquidity customers. At this time, only Accredited Investors who qualify as Institutional Accounts can purchase securities and only Accredited Investors can sell securities via Carta Liquidity. 

If you’re interested in learning more about Carta Liquidity and get access to the platform, please reach out to investor_coverage@cartacapitalmarkets.com or your account manager.

Disclaimer: Carta, through its wholly owned broker-dealer subsidiary, Carta Capital Markets, LLC, offers a streamlined experience for executing pre-negotiated stock transfers, tender offers, and other secondary liquidity transactions. Carta Capital Markets, LLC is a member of FINRA/SIPC.

What’s new?

You can now use benchmarks that are adjusted to reflect US national average pay levels. This new feature allows you to use an accurate, standard, and uniform approach when setting a compensation framework for your company. You can view and use the US national average by: 

1. Viewing Benchmarks at the US national average pay level 
2. Setting your Compensation Plan at the US national average pay level 

How can I review US national average geo-adjustments? 

US national average benchmarks are available to review on the Benchmarks page by following these steps:

1. Navigate to the “Benchmarks” page

2. In the Location selection drop-down, users can select “All US locations (national average)”

How can I use the US national average in my compensation plan? 

If your location-based compensation strategy targets compensation for all employees at the US national average, you can follow these steps to build that into your Compensation Plan

1. Navigate to “Compensation plan” on the top nav.
2. Navigate to “Location-based pay”
3. Under “USA Adjustments” select “Pay everyone the same regardless of location”
4. Check the box labeled “Use national average”

Questions? 

If you have any questions about US national average geo-adjustments, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager.