TechCrunch has verified that Public, a stock-trading startup, has acquired Carta’s secondaries business brokerage accounts
Carta, which is most renowned for its cap table administration software, maintains an abundance of data. In January, a startup customer publicly accused Carta of using its private cap table data to approach its shareholders to broker a sale without the startup’s knowledge, despite its attempts to expand into the burgeoning secondary marketplace brokerage business.
Many of Carta’s customers were apprehensive and threatened to flee after the allegation went viral.
Carta declared its intention to discontinue this enterprise several days later. Axios previously reported that it has now found a willing suitor in Public.
The customers of Carta Capital Markets, which Public acquired, can opt-out, according to an email statement sent to TC. Conversely, Carta maintains that it is not entirely cut off from the secondary market. It announces it will persist in providing “company-led secondary offerings, such as tender offers,” through its SEC-registered transfer agent.