Qapita founders
Singapore-based Qapita, a fintech startup focused on employee stock ownership plans (ESOP) and cap table management, has received US$15 million in a Series A round of investment.
East Ventures (Growth Fund) and Vulcan Capital co-led the round, with participation from NYCA and other existing investors MassMutual Ventures and Endiya Partners.
Several existing angel investors, including Alto Partners; partners of the Northstar Group, K3 Ventures, and Mission Holdings; Anjali Bansal (founder of Avaana Capital); and Sujeet Kumar (co-founder of Udaan), also co-invested.
Also Read: Qapita banks US$5M pre-Series A to enable companies to digitally manage their ESOPs and cap table
Qapita intends to utilise the money to add more products to its platform to provide solutions for private companies, startups, investors, shareholders and employees. It also plans to facilitate liquidity solutions via a digital marketplace, enabling transactions for companies between investors and employee stakeholders.
A part of the capital raised will amplify Qapita’s client base across Singapore, Indonesia and India.
The new round comes less than six months after Qapita bagged US$5 million in pre-Series A. Before that, it attracted US$1.8 million in seed funding in September 2020.
Qapita was founded in September 2019 by Ravi Ravulaparthi (CEO), Lakshman Gupta (COO) and Vamsee Mohan (CTO). Its SaaS platform helps private companies and startups record and manage their cap tables and ESOPs. It also aims to digitise the issuance of equity awards and shares.
In other words, it solves the pain points relating to HR (ESOP), finance and fundraising for private companies, investors, shareholders and employees. The firm’s marketplace will enable secondary transactions for these stakeholders.
Qapita estimates that more than US$150 billion of equity will need liquidity solutions. The startup expects the value of private securities in this region to exceed US$1-1.5 trillion (with 200-250 unicorns) in the next few years. So scalable digital solutions will be critical for such an ecosystem to thrive.
Currently, Qapita employs 65 people across Singapore and India. It plans to scale up talent across India, Indonesia and Singapore shortly.
Also Read: Future Flow’s cap table helps founders easily monitor the evolution of their stake, equity dilution
CEO Ravulaparthi said: “We are in some of the fastest-growing private markets in the world. It is an incredible time to build an operating system and transaction rails for private company ownership in this region. This is about leveraging tech to enhance transparency, access, efficiency and liquidity in private markets.”
—
Image Credit: Qapita
The post Qapita nets US$15M Series A to facilitate liquidity solutions via a digital marketplace appeared first on e27.