Employee Liquidity: NewView and Carta Launch Joint Venture

NewView and Carta have formed a strategic partnership designed to simplify the process through which startup employees can sell a portion of their equity before a company goes public or is acquired. This move addresses a critical gap for working professionals who hold significant stock grants but lack immediate access to cash, a challenge that has become more pronounced as private companies remain independent for extended periods.

The core mechanism of this initiative is the tender offer, a transaction that allows employees and early investors to sell shares at a fixed price to approved buyers. By combining NewView's expertise in structuring secondary deals with Carta's comprehensive equity platform, the two firms aim to make these liquidity programs more accessible and efficient for startup leadership. Ravi Viswanathan, the founder and managing partner of NewView, emphasized that the goal is to help chief executive officers view these tenders as a practical tool rather than a complex hurdle. He described the approach as a mutually beneficial arrangement for employees, companies, and investors.

Recent data supports the growing relevance of this financial instrument. A joint 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 the practice is no longer restricted to the most valuable private entities, such as OpenAI, Databricks, or Anduril. He cited Hightouch, a marketing customization startup, as a notable example. Last year, NewView led a tender offer for Hightouch at a valuation of $1.3 billion, providing liquidity to staff when the company was seven years old.

Despite this growth, tender offers remain a minority practice in the broader startup ecosystem. The same research found that only 44 such offers were executed in the first half of 2026. Viswanathan argues that increasing the frequency of these events is essential for talent retention and morale. He observed that the traditional recruiting pitch, which once relied heavily on the promise of unicorn status, has lost some of its impact. With the number of billion-dollar companies rising, the title alone carries less weight for potential hires. A tender offer, he argued, serves as a tangible promise of liquidity during the employee's tenure.

Several high-profile firms have recently utilized this strategy. Decagon, an artificial intelligence customer support startup, and Wayve, a self-driving technology developer, have both held tender offers. ElevenLabs, an AI voice generation company, conducted two such offerings in less than a year. These examples illustrate a broader trend among venture-backed firms seeking to maintain competitive advantages in hiring.

The outlook suggests that the extended timeline for public listings is a structural reality rather than a temporary anomaly. Viswanathan stated that companies are now staying private for 12 to 15 years, a pattern he believes is unlikely to change. To prevent a steady drain of talent from high-quality private firms to their public competitors, he argued that the industry must ensure consistent liquidity options for employees. This shift positions secondary markets as a vital component of modern startup compensation structures.