Crisis at Carta: How Henry Ward’s Dream of a Nasdaq for Private Startups Died

Carta co-founder Henry Ward for years heard venture capitalists tell him the market for software that manages startups’ stock issuances was too small. But Ward proved the skeptics wrong. Sales of Carta’s subscription software tripled in two years to $150 million in 2021, emboldening Ward to launch his long-held vision that year: a stock exchange for startups, or what Ward called the “Nasdaq for private markets.”

Enthused by the exchange’s growth potential, investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Silver Lake and Tiger Global Management poured a total of $1 billion into the San Francisco company, most recently at a $7.4 billion valuation. Headcount swelled past 1,500. The company seemed on track to fulfill board member Marc Andreessen’s 2019 forecast that “Carta will change how Wall Street and the financial world operate.”