In Q3, Carta administered 26 tender offers—the most we've recorded in any quarter since Q2 2022. Tender offers are company-led transactions in which certain existing shareholders like early investors and employees can sell off their shares, giving them an opportunity for liquidity.
Since the 2022 downturn, these liquidity events had dried up, as the trough in the graph from Q3 2022 to Q3 2023 shows. This was especially true for companies at Series C and beyond, in line with the broader decline in later-stage fundraising and exits. In 2021, over 80% of tender offers were by Series C+ companies, but that figure dropped down to 50% by 2023.
The trend has reversed in 2024: as of Q3, Series C+ companies regained share, making up 63% of all the tenders on Carta. Their average size is increasing too. Tender offers administered by Carta for Series C+ companies this year have a median size of $23 million —down from $40 million in 2021, but up from a low of $14 million in 2023.
As mature companies continue to wait for IPO and M&A opportunities, tender offers will play a key role in retaining and rewarding their talent. In fact, our new analysis shows that later-stage tender offers are now oversubscribed on average.
Read our Q3 data story on tender offers for more charts and analysis on topics like subscription and participation rates. Plus, Carta's senior writer Kevin Dowd interviewed Goodwin partner Jamie Hutchinson for additional insights!
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