Carta launches commercial operations in Asia with Singapore office

California-based Carta, a startup that offers capitalization table management and valuation software, said it has opened an office in Singapore – its first commercial operations in Asia.

Carta founder and CEO Henry Ward / Photo credit: Henry Ward

The company is launching in Southeast Asia with two of its flagship products: its capitalization table and employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) software and its tech-enabled fund admin service. The move comes after Carta secured backing from Singapore-based global investor EDBI, it said in a statement.

“With EDBI’s strong financial support and deep regional network, we are building the infrastructure backbone for the venture market by helping founders and employees better manage their equity, and we’re supercharging investors by streamlining their back-office fund operations,” the company said.

According to Carta, it chose Singapore to be the starting point for its Southeast Asian expansion partly because of the venture capital flowing in to the region through the city-state at a record pace, making cap tables harder to manage. In addition, the firm said that employee ownership in a company in Asia currently lags behind the US, which can lead to employees missing out on the venture boom.

Carta aims to help manage these complexities with its commercial launch in the region and already counts some of the biggest companies and startups in Southeast Asia as its clients, including Gojek and Traveloka.