NewView and Carta Launch Program to Speed Up Startup Employee Cash Outs

NewView and Carta announced a collaboration on Thursday to streamline the process by which startup employees sell private shares before an exit. The two firms intend to combine NewView's secondary deal structuring capabilities with Carta's equity management platform. This integration is designed to help companies launch and manage liquidity programs more efficiently.

The partnership centers on tender offers, transactions where employees and early investors sell a portion of their holdings at a fixed price to an approved buyer. As the average time startups spend in private markets increases, more late-stage companies are adopting this method to provide workers with access to their equity value.

Ravi Viswanathan, founder and managing partner of NewView, stated that the goal is to make it easier for CEOs to consider these financial tools. He described early liquidity as a "win-win-win" for employees, companies, and investors. Viswanathan encouraged founders to view tenders as a mechanism to retain talent and boost morale.

Data from a recent study by NewView Capital and Carta indicates that tender offers among Series C and later-stage startups have tripled over the past three years. Viswanathan noted that companies conducting these offers are no longer limited to high-profile giants like OpenAI, Databricks, or Anduril. He cited Hightouch, a marketing customization startup, as an example. NewView led a tender for Hightouch last year at a $1.3 billion valuation when the company was seven years old.

Despite the growth, the practice remains uncommon. The study found that only 44 tender offers were executed in the first half of 2026. This figure represents a small share of eligible startups. Viswanathan aims to expand the number of participating companies by framing tenders as a competitive advantage in recruiting.

He argued that the standard recruiting pitch has lost impact, as the sheer number of billion-dollar private companies has diluted the value of the unicorn label. A tender, he said, allows a company to tell employees, "you will also get liquidity in your journey with us." Recent participants in such programs include Decagon, Wayve, and ElevenLabs, the latter of which held two tender offers in under a year.

Viswanathan said companies are now staying private for 12 to 15 years, a trend he believes is not changing. He emphasized the need to ensure liquidity for employees to prevent high-quality venture-backed firms from losing talent to public companies.