Equity management platform Carta has announced a strategic partnership with venture capital firm NewView Capital, aimed at simplifying the procedures for organizing tender offers and making it easier for employees and early investors in startups to sell a portion of their shares and obtain early liquidity before an initial public offering.
This move combines NewView Capital's structural expertise in organizing secondary transactions with Carta's technology platform, allowing late-stage startups to launch and manage liquidity programs more smoothly without encountering major administrative or financial complexities.
Increasing Need for Liquidity as Companies Stay Private Longer
This initiative comes at a time when market dynamics are changing noticeably, as industry data indicates that startups are delaying initial public offerings and remaining private for periods ranging from 12 to 15 years. Consequently, employees who receive part of their compensation in the form of stock face difficulties in reaping the rewards of their work for extended periods.
A joint study conducted by Carta and NewView showed that stock repurchase offers have grown threefold over the past three years among startups that have reached Series C funding rounds and beyond. Despite this growth, the total number of companies providing these options remains relatively limited, with only 44 stock sales offers executed during the first half of 2026.
Talent Retention as a Crucial Factor in the Tech Environment
Ravi Viswanathan, founder and managing partner of NewView Capital, explained that the partnership seeks to establish the concept of early liquidity as an option that benefits everyone: employees, companies, and investors alike. He pointed out that the "unicorn" designation is no longer sufficient on its own to attract and retain top talent as it was a decade ago, particularly with the proliferation of unicorns and increasing competition with major public companies.
Viswanathan believes that providing early liquidity programs offers a key tool to maintain the morale of technical teams and prevent the leakage of high-caliber talent toward exchange-listed companies that provide directly tradable shares.
Why This Development Matters to the Startup Ecosystem
This development reflects a shift in the structure of technical compensation within the startup sector, where stock repurchase programs are no longer exclusive to the highest-valued private tech giants such as OpenAI, Databricks, and Anduril. Instead, they have begun to expand to include startups at various stages of growth and across diverse fields.
The list of companies that have recently implemented stock repurchase programs includes marketing customization firm Hightouch at a $1.3 billion valuation, AI customer service company Decagon, autonomous driving technology developer Wayve, as well as ElevenLabs, which specializes in AI voice generation and executed two liquidity programs in under a year.