What's new?

Before Carta cap table customers take their companies public, they can allow their employees (or Participants) to begin preparing themselves to sell their hard-earned company equity using the Participant Trade Readiness (PTR) feature. This feature allows the Participants to ensure they have the proper permissions in place to sell company shares as soon as a company’s lockup period ends. 

The PTR feature is a 3-step process which allows Participants to upload important personal, contact, and tax information as well as documentation required to verify their identities under current Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) requirements. 

How does this work?

Companies can request Carta to enable this feature for their Participants. Once enabled, employees will see a banner at the top of their Carta account profiles with clear instructions for required tasks, a checklist, and success messages as they proceed through the process. Participants will be asked to:

• Complete their employee profiles by uploading their latest W-8 or W-9 form. This triggers  a KYC/AML check, which typically takes several business days, to verify their identities and avoid potential trading delays;
• Read and accept Carta’s end user terms; and

• Connect their personal bank accounts. 

  
  

  

Once all three steps are complete, the Participant will see a success message confirming they have finished all required tasks. Participants are now ready to trade once your company’s lockup period ends, which could be as soon as Day 1 of your IPO if your company elects to have an early lockup release. 

Allow your employees to get trade ready ahead of going public

The PTR feature:

• Prepares employees in advance to trade their company equity, avoiding delays in trading capabilities; 
• Improves the employees’ trade readiness experience through a simple 3-step process; and 
• Streamlines the data collection process 

Overall, the process of taking your company public is an exciting and busy time for both you and your employees. Previously, employees did not find out they were unable to trade shares due to missing documents and signatures until after the IPO date - resulting in potentially delayed trading ability for several weeks. The PTR feature avoids these issues by streamlining collection of information well before the IPO date - guiding employees on all actions they need to take every step of the way.  

Reach out to Carta to get the process started

Are you preparing to go public? Reach out to Carta’s public markets team (carta.public@carta.com) to begin planning your IPO journey.

The Participant Trade Readiness feature can be enabled by getting in contact with Carta at the email above.