The Carta and NewView tender offer partnership aims to help private startups give employees opportunities to sell shares before an IPO or acquisition. The collaboration combines Carta’s equity management platform with NewView Capital’s secondary-transaction experience.
Announced in September 2026, the strategic collaboration comes as startups remain private longer. Employees who receive company stock as compensation often cannot convert that equity into cash until a liquidity event.
Company-sponsored tender offers provide an alternative. These transactions let eligible employees, and sometimes early investors, sell a portion of their shares at a set price to approved buyers.
How the Carta and NewView Tender Offer Partnership Works
Carta will provide the technology to manage equity transactions, while NewView will contribute expertise in structuring and financing secondary share sales. The companies aim to simplify the process for founders planning employee liquidity programs.
Ravi Viswanathan, NewView’s founder and managing partner, believes regular tender offers can help startups retain experienced employees. He argues that letting workers realize some value from their equity benefits companies, investors, and employees.
The partnership is already supporting several tender offers, according to the companies. Carta said it administered more than 70 tender offers representing approximately $3 billion in transaction volume during the first half of 2026.
Employee Tender Offers Are Becoming More Common
A joint study by NewView and Carta analyzed more than 550 tender transactions conducted between 2021 and mid-2026. Among Series C and later-stage companies in the dataset, activity increased from 14 transactions in early 2023 to 44 in the first half of 2026.
Employees participated in 91% of the transactions analyzed. The median tender allowed workers to sell up to 20% of their equity, preserving some ownership while providing immediate liquidity.
Despite increasing activity, tender offers remain uncommon across the broader startup market. Viswanathan wants more founders to consider structured share sales as part of their employee compensation strategies.
The approach is no longer limited to highly valued private businesses such as OpenAI and Databricks. NewView previously led a tender offer for marketing technology startup Hightouch at a $1.3 billion valuation.
Other companies have introduced similar programs. AI voice startup ElevenLabs completed a $300 million employee tender offer in September at a $22 billion valuation. British AI company Synthesia also enabled employee share sales alongside its $200 million Series E funding round.
Longer IPO Timelines Increase Demand for Liquidity
Private companies increasingly spend more than a decade building their businesses before entering public markets. That extended timeline can leave employees holding valuable but difficult-to-sell equity for years.
Viswanathan believes tender offers can help companies compete for talent without requiring an IPO. Employees gain access to some of their compensation, while businesses can maintain private ownership and continue expanding.
The Carta and NewView collaboration is intended to make those transactions easier to organize and execute. However, participation and the amount employees can sell will still depend on each company’s approved tender offer terms.
