UPDATED 22:32 EDT / MARCH 28 2019

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Carta, a startup that helps other startups, reportedly raising $300M on $1.8B valuation

Carta Inc., a Palo Alto, California-based startup that helps companies, investors and employees manage their equity in other startups, is raising a new round of $300 million on a $1.8 billion valuation, according to an unconfirmed report published Thursday.

The report comes from The Information, quoting sources saying that the Series E round will be led by Andreessen Horowitz, with Lightspeed Venture Partners also participating.

The new round of funding is notable because Carta last raised venture capital funding — a Series D round led by Meritech Capital and Tribe Capital — in December, to the tune of $80 million on an $800 million valuation.

Founded in 2012, Carta helps startups and people involved in them manage their investments. As a U.S. Securities Exchange Commission registered transfer agent for private companies, Carta enables seed-stage to pre-IPO companies to manage equity electronically with the participation of their shareholders, employees, auditors and legal counsel. Put more simply, Carta offers a cloud service designed to streamline the once paper-based processes involved in managing a private company’s equity.

The company allows startups to manage the logistics of raising capital, issuing stock options to employees and managing their capitalization tables, that last referring to tracking who owns what equity in a startup. As of December, Carta was assisting in managing more than $500 billion in equity for some 10,000 companies, including many from the tech industry. Clients include Slack Technologies Inc., Squarespace Inc. and Robinhood Market Inc.

“We’ve come this far by changing how ownership management works for private companies,” Emily Cramer, Carta’s vice president of marketing, said at the last round. “But our ambitions go far beyond supporting privately held, venture-backed companies.”

Carta already has a Who’s Who of Sand Hill Road venture capital firms and individuals backing it. Its list of investors includes Draper VC, Expansion VC, k9 Ventures, Elefund, Subtraction Capital, Scott Banister, XG Ventures, Kima Ventures, Andy Palmer and Structure Capital.

Should the new round proceed, Carta will have raised $447.8 million to date.

Image: Carta

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