New Partnership Aims to Simplify Employee Stock Sales for Private Startups

For employees at private startups, holding stock often means waiting a long time to see any actual cash. As companies stay out of the public markets for longer periods, many workers are left holding shares with no easy way to sell. NewView and Carta have announced a partnership designed to fix this issue. The goal is to make it significantly simpler for companies to organize sales of employee shares before a final exit event occurs.

The core of this new effort relies on a financial tool known as the tender offer. In this process, approved buyers purchase a portion of shares from employees and sometimes early investors at a fixed price. Late-stage companies are increasingly using this method as the wait for an acquisition or public listing continues to extend. The partnership combines NewView's experience in structuring these secondary deals with Carta's equity management platform. Ravi Viswanathan, the founder and managing partner of NewView, stated that the collaboration is intended to help startups run liquidity programs more smoothly. He described the approach as a win-win-win for employees, companies, and investors.

Data from a recent study by NewView Capital and Carta indicates that this practice is spreading rapidly. The report projects that tender offers among Series C and later-stage startups have grown threefold over the past three years. Viswanathan noted that the companies using these tools are no longer just the most valuable private firms like OpenAI, Databricks, or Anduril. As a specific example, he pointed to Hightouch, a marketing customization startup. Last year, NewView led a tender for Hightouch at a $1.3 billion valuation when the company was seven years old.

Despite the growth, the practice is still not universal. The same research found that only 44 tender offers were executed in the first half of 2026. This represents a small share of all eligible startups. Viswanathan wants to widen that group, arguing that tenders serve as strong retention tools and morale boosters. He argued that the standard recruiting pitch has lost some of its force over the last decade. While reaching unicorn status used to be enough to attract talent, the sheer number of billion-dollar companies today means the label carries less weight. He said a tender is an opportunity for a company to tell employees they will get liquidity during their journey there.

Recent examples of companies using this approach include Decagon, an AI customer support startup, and Wayve, which develops self-driving technology. ElevenLabs, an AI voice generator, also carried out two such offerings in under a year. Viswanathan said the longer timelines for going public are unlikely to reverse. He noted that companies are staying private for 12 to 15 years, a trend that does not appear to be changing. To prevent a talent drain from high-quality venture-backed companies to their public counterparts, he added that there needs to be liquidity for the employees.

The outlook for the next few years suggests that private companies will continue to rely on these mechanisms to retain top talent. By making the process easier, the partnership aims to ensure that employees can access the value of their stock without waiting for a major corporate exit. This shift could redefine how startups approach compensation and employee retention in the coming decade.