44 Tender Offers Executed as Startups Stay Private for 15 Years

Startup employees are waiting longer for a payday.

A joint study by NewView Capital and Carta indicates that tender offers at Series C and later-stage companies have tripled over the last three years. Despite this growth, only 44 tender offers were executed in the first half of 2026. This number represents a small fraction of the startups that are currently eligible to sell shares.

The data suggests the practice is moving beyond the most valuable private firms. Ravi Viswanathan, founder and managing partner of NewView, noted that companies like OpenAI, Databricks, and Anduril were the primary participants in the past. He cited Hightouch, a marketing customization startup, as a recent example. NewView led a tender offer for Hightouch at a $1.3 billion valuation when the company was seven years old.

Other recent participants include Decagon, an AI customer support startup, and Wayve, a self-driving technology developer. ElevenLabs, an AI voice generator, completed two tender offers in under a year. These transactions allow employees and early investors to sell a portion of their shares to approved buyers at a set price.

The partnership aims to streamline this process for CEOs and founders. NewView brings experience in structuring secondary deals, while Carta provides the equity platform infrastructure. Viswanathan described the integration as a way to make liquidity programs smoother to launch and run. He argued that early liquidity serves as a retention tool and a morale booster for staff.

Viswanathan said the standard recruiting pitch of reaching unicorn status has lost its force. With many companies now holding billion-dollar valuations, the label carries less weight in attracting talent. He viewed tender offers as a way for companies to promise employees liquidity during their tenure. He called the approach a win-win-win for employees, companies, and investors.

The underlying driver is the length of the private stage. Viswanathan stated that companies are staying private for 12 to 15 years. He said this trend is not changing. To prevent a drain of talent from venture-backed companies to public counterparts, he added that liquidity for employees is necessary.