Carta and NewView partner to streamline startup tender offers

How the partnership works

The partnership combines NewView’s experience in structuring secondary market deals with Carta’s equity management platform. The goal is to simplify the logistics of tender offers, which allow employees and early investors to sell a portion of their shares at a predetermined price to approved investors.

According to TechCrunch, the collaboration is designed to help startups launch and manage liquidity programs more efficiently, reducing operational complexity for founders and finance teams.

Why tender offers are gaining traction

Tender offers for Series C and later-stage startups have more than tripled over the past three years, according to a study from NewView Capital and Carta. However, the overall share of startups conducting such offers remains small, with only 44 executed in the first half of 2026.

Ravi Viswanathan, Founder and Managing Partner of NewView, described tender offers as a "win-win-win" for employees, companies, and investors. He emphasized their role as retention tools and morale boosters, particularly as competition for talent intensifies in sectors like AI and technology.

Recent examples include AI startups like Decagon and ElevenLabs, as well as self-driving tech developer Wayve. ElevenLabs, for instance, conducted two tender offers in less than a year.

Who stands to benefit

The partnership targets late-stage startups seeking to provide liquidity without pursuing an initial public offering (IPO) or full acquisition. While historically limited to high-profile private companies like OpenAI, Databricks, and Anduril, tender offers are now being considered by a broader range of venture-backed businesses.

For employees, tender offers provide an opportunity to realize financial gains before an IPO or exit. For founders, they can help retain talent by offering partial liquidity while keeping the company private. Investors, meanwhile, gain a structured way to acquire shares in sought-after startups.

What this means

Lazyfounder analysis — our interpretation, not reported fact.

For founders and operators, this partnership signals two things: first, that liquidity solutions are becoming more accessible and standardized, reducing the friction of running a tender offer. Second, it reflects a shift in how startups think about compensation and retention. As private companies grow larger and stay private longer, tools like tender offers may become a key differentiator in attracting and keeping top talent—particularly in competitive sectors like AI, where equity is a major part of compensation packages.

The relatively small number of tender offers executed so far suggests that adoption is still early, but the projected growth indicates a rising trend. Startups considering this option will need to weigh the benefits of employee retention against the operational and financial complexity of managing such programs.

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