Charles Schwab backs Singapore’s Qapita, a Carta challenger

Qapita, a Singapore-based fairness administration platform, has raised $26.5 million in a Sequence B spherical led by Charles Schwab.

As a part of the deal, Charles Schwab has launched a brand new platform referred to as Schwab Personal Issuer Fairness Companies — powered by Qapita — which let’s U.S. startups handle their cap tables, administer inventory plans, and put together for public listings.

Based in 2019 by former banker Ravi Ravulaparthi (CEO) with Lakshman Gupta (COO) and Vamsee Mohan (CTO) (pictured above, from left to proper), Qapita helps personal corporations monitor possession, handle worker fairness, and facilitate secondary share gross sales. The startup serves personal corporations throughout Southeast Asia and the U.S., and in addition offers its platform for listed companies in India to handle fairness after going public.

Qapita started as a platform to handle cap tables after Ravulaparthi, throughout his earlier banking profession, observed that many corporations nonetheless relied on spreadsheets. When the startup launched in January 2021, it expanded the platform based mostly on early buyer suggestions to incorporate an fairness administration instrument for worker inventory plans, initially launched in beta. Competitor Carta later entered the Indian market however exited in 2023, giving Qapita room to strengthen its place.

The startup presently has about 2,700 corporations utilizing its platform, it says. Roughly 70% are based mostly in India and 20% in Southeast Asia, together with Singapore and Indonesia. Qapita counts round half of India’s unicorns amongst its prospects, Ravulaparthi stated in an interview.

Whereas Qapita affords free entry to its platform for early-stage corporations, about half of its customers — roughly 1,400 companies — pay for no less than one in every of its providers, Ravulaparthi instructed TechCrunch.

Along with India and Southeast Asia, the startup has a number of customers within the U.S. as a part of its early market testing. Nonetheless, this partnership will considerably broaden its presence within the U.S.

“After all, the U.S. is a really giant market. There are a number of choices within the personal market area within the U.S., however they’re too few for a market of that dimension,” Ravulaparthi stated of rivals.

Charles Schwab already handles inventory plans for main public corporations. Nonetheless, this deal offers it a foothold with personal corporations letting it compete for startups with Carta, Pulley, or Morgan Stanley’s Shareworks.

The platform will present fairness administration instruments to automate cap desk processes, produce stories and dashboards, and hyperlink with different monetary techniques. It would additionally tie into Schwab’s wealth administration community, enabling corporations and their workers to handle inventory plans and put together for IPOs.

Qapita’s Sequence B additionally included participation from its current traders, Citi and MassMutual Ventures. This funding may even assist the startup improve its platform by launching a fund admin product throughout a number of markets.

Up to now, the startup has raised greater than $80 million in funding and has a headcount of 300 workers.