Startups turn to tender offers to unlock employee equity as IPOs delay

NewView and Carta have joined forces to help private companies execute tender offers, a mechanism that allows employees and early investors to sell a portion of their stock at a set price to an approved buyer. The collaboration pairs NewView's experience in structuring secondary deals with Carta's equity platform. The goal is to simplify the process for startups that want to provide liquidity to staff before an eventual exit.

Ravi Viswanathan, founder and managing partner of NewView, described the partnership as a way to help companies launch and run liquidity programs more smoothly. He stated, "The hope is that this partnership will make it easier for CEOs and companies to think about tenders." Viswanathan characterized early liquidity as a win-win-win for employees, companies, and investors.

Research from NewView Capital and Carta indicates that tender offers among Series C and later-stage startups have grown threefold over the past three years. Viswanathan noted that these transactions are no longer limited to the most valuable private firms, such as OpenAI, Databricks, or Anduril. He cited Hightouch, a marketing customization startup, as an example. Last year, NewView led a tender for Hightouch at a $1.3 billion valuation when the company was seven years old.

Despite the growth, tender offers remain a small share of the total market. The same research found that only 44 tender offers were executed in the first half of 2026. Viswanathan wants to widen the group of companies using this method, citing tenders as strong retention tools and morale boosters. He argued that the standard recruiting pitch has lost some of its force, noting that the label of unicorn status carries less weight today than it did a decade ago.

Recent companies to hold tender offers include Decagon, an AI customer support startup; Wayve, a self-driving technology developer; and ElevenLabs, an AI voice generator that carried out two such offerings in under a year. Viswanathan said the longer timelines for public listings are unlikely to reverse, stating, "The companies are staying private for 12 to 15 years. That's not changing."

To prevent a talent drain from high-quality venture-backed companies to their public counterparts, Viswanathan added, "we need to make sure that there is liquidity for the employees." He viewed tenders as an opportunity for companies to tell candidates that they will also get liquidity in their journey with the firm.