‍What Carta can do for you‍

Carta is a cloud-based cap table management and valuation software solution. Built for companies and venture capitalists, the platform gives finance teams better visibility over equity breakdown and other vital shareholder information.

Carta digitizes paper stock certificates, stock options, warrants and derivatives, offering a solution that can manage valuations, investments and equity plans. The platform provides the tools for companies, investors and employees to manage their equity stakes and track overall ownership more accurately and efficiently. The platform’s cap table dashboard, for example, reveals the value of shareholder equity and the percentages of ownership and equity dilution during each round of investment. These interactive dashboards chart progress and show investors their estimated returns.

One of Carta’s most celebrated boons is in investors gaining access to cap table dashboards wherever they might be. Data protection is therefore at the platform’s core — internal policies, privacy features and testing protocols work together to keep your information safe. The Carta platform also highlights which owners are willing to sell, as well as the time and pricing of issued shares. With these insights, organizations are able to clearly model future investment and fundraising events.

In 2022, Carta acquired its leading UK competitor, Capdesk, to further enhance its product offering, particularly its cap table management capabilities.

This pricing guide looks specifically at Carta’s Equity Management product, which has been designed for company use. Equity Management has three primary functions:

‍1. Cap Table Management

• Transforms your cap table into an asset, not a liability.
• Handles all equity types and stakeholders so you never lose track of ownership.
• Real-time table updates remove the need for manual data entries and minimizes risk of human error.
  • These updates also attract more investors by proving shareholder stakes in one clear version of the truth.
• Add existing investment documents and notes in minutes, not days.
• Issue share certificates, access reports and model future fundraisers all from one platform.

2. Valuations

• Carta’s in-house team delivers EMI, CSOP 409A, and growth share valuations in 3-5 business days.
• The Carta team also liaises with UK and US tax authorities on your behalf.
• World-leading provider of 409A valuations.

3. EMI Share Plans

• Set up your EMI share schemes and start issuing options in weeks.
• Go from share plan setup to option granting all on one platform.
• In-house analysts ensure your share plan follows market standards and industry regulations.
• Customize templates designed by lawyers and remove the burden of producing documents from scratch.

Carta pricing structures and tiers‍

Carta pricing isn’t available online — a common practice in the SaaS market, where vendors look to upsell products and features during sales pitches. This frustration is one of the motivating influences behind Vertice: by leveraging unique market intel, we’re able to negotiate optimized SaaS subscriptions on our customers’ behalf, regardless of the solution they’re purchasing. Carta pricing is split between three subscription tiers, which we’ve broken down below. Each subscription comes with hands-on customer support during migration and continued assistance once the platform goes live.

Carta pricing — Build

Carta’s lowest tier, Build, is suitable for early-stage startups. As well as customer support, Build subscribers gain access to cap table management, employee share plan management, round modeling and investor relations tools.

Carta pricing — Grow

Carta’s recommended midweight tier, Grow, has been designed to help companies accelerate their growth. As well as the features of Build, Grow subscribers enjoy EMI and CSOP valuations, EMI share plans, exit modeling, and over 50 HR integrations.

Carta pricing — Scale

For scaling businesses, Scale is the aptly named premium Carta tier. In addition to the features included in Build and Grow, the Scale tier brings 409A and growth share valuations, as well as IFRS/UK GAAP reporting systems.  For more information on pricing and platform features of Carta’s Venture Capital product, click on the link.

‍Additional Carta costs to consider‍

Since visibility on Carta pricing is unavailable online, it’s not clear whether there are any additional subscription costs to consider. In any case, our customer purchasing teams are experts when it comes to optimizing contracts — if there are extra costs, they’ll be the first to know.

‍Other vendors offering equity management solutions‍

Carta has already acquired some of its direct competitors, but there are still worthy alternatives that may better suit your organization’s needs. Whichever platform you choose, our objective remains the same: cut software spend and optimize our clients’ stack. Take a look at three alternative platforms below.

Carta pricing vs Shareworks

Developed by Morgan Stanley, Shareworks is a cap table and equity compensation management platform for private and public companies of all sizes. In 2017, Shareworks acquired Capshare to improve its cap table management capabilities. The platform focuses primarily on equity management and administration, with custom, global plans and robust reporting tools, including 409A valuation events. Like Carta, Shareworks pricing is also unavailable, but new customers can access a free trial of its services.

Carta pricing vs Ledgy

The Ledgy platform offers cap table management, transition tracking, scenario modeling, stakeholder engagement, equity plan automation, and financial reporting. It does so through four subscription tiers, as follows:

• Launch, a free-to-use platform for startups at the earliest stage of development.
• Growth, priced at $3 per stakeholder, per month.
• Scale, custom pricing.
• Enterprise, custom pricing.

Ledgy also offers a free trial to new customers.

Carta pricing vs Eqvista

The Eqvista platform specializes in cap table management, share issuing, financial modeling and valuations. Eqvista pricing is available online and, like Ledgy, the platform’s lowest tier comes at absolutely no cost:

• Freemium, for cap table and equity plan management. Free plan extends to up to 20 stakeholders.
• Premium, priced at $2 per stakeholder, per month.
• Enterprise, prices are based on the number of shareholders, as follows:

• • Under 30 shareholders: $125 per month
  • 30-60: $160 per month
  • 60-100: $210 per month
  • 100-200: $280 per month
  • 200+: contact for quote

Carta pricing — the Vertice verdict‍

The Carta platform brings clear benefits to investors and fund managers, digitizing an assortment of financial contracts and data into one platform. In doing so, companies are better able to manage their cap table, offering enhanced visibility into shareholder percentages and streamlining valuations and fundraising processes.But Carta is more than a tool for investors. By providing greater visibility into employees’ equity shares at startups and SMEs, the platform can also stimulate greater motivation within your organization. Carta pricing isn’t visible online, making it difficult to offer a direct comparison with other solutions mentioned on this page. User reviews do suggest, however, that Carta will likely be considered too expensive by startups, and that the platform is more appropriate for medium-to-large organizations. Shareworks also hides its pricing, but the service focuses more on equity compensation management, suggesting that Carta offers more in terms of cap table management.Ledgy offers many of the same features as Carta but targets its services at smaller companies. Its free subscription tier, Launch, includes cap table management, equity plans and scenario modeling — more than enough to offer clarity on investment planning for small businesses.Eqvista also offers a free-to-use subscription and is by far the most transparent when it comes to pricing structures. That might just suit those looking for a quick and clear solution.  No matter which platform you believe will make the difference to your organization, Vertice’s purchasing teams are able to negotiate the best deals on your behalf. For more information on how we can optimize your SaaS subscriptions, click on the link.