How DataTribe simplified tax season by integrating fund admin and taxes on Carta

DataTribe, a cybersecurity venture capital firm in Washington, D.C., needed integrated fund administration and tax solutions to handle the growing demands of complex investment vehicles. 

Founded in 2015, the firm began with family offices and corporate investors. By the launch of its third fund, Managing Director Leo Scott and CFO Matt Moran had expanded to also work with large institutional investors, juggling taskwork across funds and catching up with tax preparers in spurts. The firm’s processes had become significantly inefficient for more complex operations, forcing long hours and constant reprioritizations, especially during tax season. 

Carta helped DataTribe simplify fund management, connecting daily operations with tax requirements. Integrated financial data and personalized attention enhanced DataTribe’s efficiency and strengthened its financial operations. 

Technology was a key factor in DataTribe’s decision to switch to Carta fund solutions. Moran had worked with a traditional fund administrator, but he struggled with getting their attention in a timely manner. 

“Speed and timely delivery of financials to investors is extremely important. It directly impacts investor trust and confidence in a manager,” says Moran. “The legacy fund administration model really caters more toward large managers with lots of funds and assets under management. Emerging managers like DataTribe often get deprioritized.

“Our view is that technology democratizes service levels such that all customers can receive quality and timely service. With Carta’s approach of real-time entries and general ledger transparency, we’re able to review in real time. It gives us a good understanding of where we are in our processes.”

Visibility allows DataTribe to build momentum, turn tasks around more quickly, and ensure continued accuracy. The benefits extend to investor relations, letting Moran provide investors with access to information without slow manual effort. 

“Having Carta as our fund admin and tax service has been a really big time saver for us. The platform enhances our reporting capabilities, including the look and feel of our documents,” says Moran. “It’s been a seamless process. We can share portal access so investors can view their statements, financials, and tax information, while auditors can review full account activity and supporting documentation. It cuts down on back and forth.”

DataTribe further increased efficiency by connecting fund administration with tax compliance on Carta. 

Previously, Moran often faced lengthy, draining conversations with tax providers to review and reconcile months of financial activity all at once. Even with discussions earlier in the year, a time-consuming catch-up was typically required after the books were closed to prepare for tax filings. By comparison, Carta provides synergies DataTribe didn’t have with earlier service providers.

“A dedicated tax team with real-time access to your data can provide real-time analysis. This helps us think through things like book to tax differences, tax distribution potential, and estimated partner liability,” says Moran. “It’s an end-to-end approach because it flows from data we provide for fund administration which drives efficiency at tax time.”

When it’s time to prepare and file tax returns, Moran trusts Carta to streamline processes so he can focus on his role as a CFO, approving submissions and ensuring investors receive accurate and timely tax documents. 

“A fund tax return can be thousands of PDF pages. It is nearly impossible to get through on a line-by-line basis, but with Carta, I can review a high volume of data in a fraction of the time,” says Moran. “Because the same data powers both fund administration and tax reporting, I can work in one system throughout. It expedites the process and adds a lot of comfort to my reviews.”  

While DataTribe initially joined Carta for its technology, Moran has come to love working with the service teams. He considers them an extension of the finance team at DataTribe and relies on them for their deep expertise and initiative. 

“I love Carta products, but I value the team more, because they’re fund administration experts who know venture and understand our business, while bringing their own point of view,” says Moran. “They’re not just bookkeepers maintaining our books. They’re a resource for best practices and they share what they see across the industry in appropriate ways.

“At the end of the day, they make sure we have the right information, share it in a timely manner with partners and investors, and improve our processes so we can operate better on a daily basis.”