What’s new?

We have updated salary, total cash compensation, and equity benchmarks for all job areas and specializations across both valuation and headcount based peer groups. 

Benchmark Trends

In aggregate, salary and total cash compensation benchmarks are slightly higher than our last release, increasing by 1%. These increases were consistent across all valuation peer groups and levels. Similar to previous updates, specialization level data continues to change more than the broader sample, as sample sizes for these roles are smaller than job area level data.

Equity benchmarks are increasing in aggregate, showing about a 2% increase versus last quarter. This quarter’s increases are fairly tightly correlated with company valuation, with higher valuation benchmarks seeing the largest increases.

Updated headcount based benchmarks show larger than typical increases or decreases compared to our initial release for a number of roles. This is a result of additional data, improvements to our underlying models, and feedback from customers.  Going forward we expect these benchmarks to be less volatile over time (similar to our valuation-based benchmarks)

What were the largest areas of movement from these benchmarks?

Salary - Salary benchmarks for most job areas and specializations are within 2% of last quarter’s data. 

Equity - Equity benchmarks are generally within 5% of last quarter’s benchmarks. Roles that are increasing by more than 5% are Product Marketing, Admin, Project Management, Support, and UX Design

How do I update my benchmark version?

You can also preview the new benchmarks on your Scorecard by navigating to the Benchmarks page and clicking on the "Preview benchmarks" bubble in the top left.

Here you will have the opportunity to preview the new plan with the updated benchmarks version and assess their impact on your Scorecard before accepting the new plan.

Questions?

If you have any questions about these new benchmarks, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager.

Manage your investor relationships through the new Investor Relations page! 

What’s new? 

The Investor Relations page consolidates common workflows for company admins who are responsible for managing investor relationships. The page offers a detailed ledger for each investor and keeps track of any information requests they've sent your way, so nothing gets missed. 

Who is this available for? 

This is available for all companies who receive requests for information from their investors through Carta. Admins with company editor or full access privileges can view this page. 

How do I use it?

Log into your account on Carta and navigate to the Investor relations menu item. 

You'll be able to re-submit or edit your submission through the ledger until the request is marked as completed by the requestor. 

What’s new?

Board members, investors, and company executives need to to ensure, from a governance perspective, that equity is being used responsibly by the company. To support this need we are launching a new set of benchmarks to help companies evaluate their equity usage versus peers:

1. Option pool size - the percentage of fully diluted shares reserved to grant to people in the future
2. Equity burn rate -  the percentage of fully diluted shares granted over the last 365 days

How can I access the new Equity Plan Benchmarks?

1. Navigate to the Benchmarks page in Carta Total Compensation
2. Navigate to the “Option pool & Burn rate” tab on the Benchmarks page 

The appropriate benchmarks, based on your company’s valuation, will be highlighted on the page.

Questions?

If you have any questions about these new benchmarks, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager.

What's new?

Fund managers can now require two approvers to authorize payments before processing.

What’s important about this change?

This feature provides enhanced controls over releasing payments, ensuring that VC and PE firms can adhere to their audit procedures while maintaining control over their financial operations.

How does it work?

Select Firm Settings in the left hand navigation, then click Settings. Within the Settings tab, click People, then scroll to the bottom to the new Payment approval section.

Here you can set how many approvers are required (up to two) and the threshold amount. Only users with Admin permissions can update this section. If you need to update who the approvers are, scroll to the People section at the top of the page.

You’ll also have the ability to track the progress of active payments and view the history of completed payments, including who approved them and when they were approved in your Activity tab.

Navigation within the portfolio experience has a new look! With the new side menu, we've made it easier to find what you're looking for within your portfolio. 

What’s new? 

The navigation menu in the portfolio experience has moved from the top to the side, with a few of the 'harder to find' but important pages made more accessible to reach. Users will additionally have the ability to filter the menu to find specific pages in the menu.

With these changes, portfolio owners will have an easier time finding all the tools at their disposal to manage their holdings. 

Who is this available for? 

All non-investor individuals with a portfolio holding on Carta will see the new navigation menu. 

How do I use it?

Log into your account on Carta and view your portfolio to access the new navigation:

How do I learn more about these changes?

For more information, see this support article for an in depth breakdown of the changes. 

Data is critical for founders to make informed decisions when fundraising and hiring. We are now offering early stage founders benchmark insights on early stage rounds and first engineering and marketing hires. 

What’s new?

A centralized hub makes it easier for founders to access and interact with fundraising and hiring benchmarks.

Fundraise insights provides information on early stage SAFE and priced round market terms and how they compare to other companies in related stages, regions, and industries.

• Percentiles for company valuations over the last year
• Median cash raised per round over the last year
• Calculations of the dilution on your cap table based on market round terms

Hiring insights provides information on how much to pay early marketing and engineering hires.

• Option pool size across seed, Series A, and Series B companies
• Percentage of total company equity in initial 4-year grant
• Available for New York/San Francisco.
  
  *More job areas, levels, and locations are available on Carta Total Compensation

Why this matters:

These updates enable founders to navigate fundraising and hiring strategies with precision and insight. This resource enables founders to make data-driven decisions and strategically plan for their company's growth, optimize their fundraising strategies and ensure their hiring packages are competitive, setting their teams up for success.

How can I access it?

Market Insights is available on all Carta plans. Find it under Essentials>View market insights. For more information visit our support article.

Investors can now refer their portfolio companies to get QSBS Attestations from Carta.

The feature allows investors to do this for individual companies or multiple companies that are likely QSBS eligible. Once you refer your portfolio company, they will receive a notification on Carta encouraging them to get a QSBS Attestation. After a company receives the QSBS Attestation, you will receive an email and copy of a QSBS Attestation letter addressed to your firm highlighting which securities held are QSBS eligible. 

What do I need to do?

This feature is available to users who are admins for an investment firm on Carta. Navigate to the 'Investments' page of your firm where you can refer in bulk or individual companies for QSBS reviews from Carta.  If you have any questions reach out to your assigned Carta account team or qsbs@carta.com to learn more!

What’s new?

We are launching an updated version of our Equity Refresh Planner to better help with:

1. Identifying which employees receive a grant
2. Deciding the size of each refresh grant based on market benchmarks 

This updated tool includes:

1. The ability to add/remove employees to your company’s Refresh Plan
2. Quick filters to quickly identify eligible and/or High Retention risk employees based on tenure, your compensation plan, and market targets.
3. Settings to help manage the refresh grant recommendation and tenure eligibility criteria

How can I access the new Equity Refresh planner?

1. Navigate to the Reports page in Carta Total Compensation
2. Navigate to the “Equity Refresh” tile and click “View report” 
3. The interactive planner will open

How do I use the Advanced Equity Refresh planner? 

This planner helps companies identify employees who should be considered for additional equity grants as a way to retain talent at the company. It also provides market based refresh grant recommendations that can be adjusted as needed.

Questions?

If you have any questions about this new planner, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager.

What's new?

As part of our ongoing efforts to enhance accuracy and reliability, we have transitioned our Canceled and Returned report to Carta's Equity Reporting Suite service.

What does the new report offer?

• Consistent Date Formatting: All date columns are now displayed as MM/DD/YYYY for consistency across reports.
• Standardized Security ID Field: The "Security ID" field is now uniformly formatted across all new reports, facilitating easier reconciliation.
• Uniform Quantity Columns: All quantity-related columns, including "Quantity Issued," "Quantity Canceled," "Quantity Forfeited," "Quantity Repurchased," and "Quantity Transferred," are now displayed consistently to simplify reconciliation.
• Detailed Transaction Type Field: The new "Transaction Type" field replaces the old "Reason for Cancellation" field. This new field offers more detailed transaction discrimination and resolves previous issues with reconciling shares returning due to grant life expiration (now tracked under "Lifetime Ended"). It also tracks options canceled due to repricing.
• Termination Date: A new "Termination Date" field has been added to further streamline reconciliations.

How can I access it?

To access the new Canceled and Returned report, click on Run reports under Essentials or navigate to Cap table and select Run reports.

Where can I learn more?

For more information on Carta's equity reports, please refer to our dedicated support article.

Fund Admin customers with portfolio companies using Carta's QSBS Attestation product will now see a QSBS tag on the SOI for investments that have been attested to as QSBS eligible by Carta Tax and Valuations team.

The tag indicates that your fund holds shares that are QSBS eligible (pending the holding period requirement). To see more details about your QSBS eligible shares you can click on the investment and navigate to the Holdings page and select 'QSBS eligible shares'.

Here you can view more information including: number of eligible shares, securities that are eligible, and download a PDF of the personalized QSBS Attestation letter.

What do I need to do?

This page is available to customers using Carta for Fund Administration. You can navigate to your Fund's SOI on Carta by selecting "choose entity" on your firm's account, selecting the fund you wish to view, and selecting "Investments" in the navigation menus.

If you have any questions reach out to your assigned Carta account team or qsbs@carta.com to learn more!