Carta’s ill-fated secondaries business finally found a buyer

Stock-trading startup Public has acquired the brokerage accounts of Carta’s secondaries business, TechCrunch has confirmed.

Carta, best known for its cap table management software, sits on a stockpile of data. It tried to expand into the bubbling hot secondary marketplace brokerage business, but in January, a startup customer publicly accused Carta of using the startup’s private cap table data to approach its shareholders in order to broker a sale without the startup’s knowledge. That allegation went viral and scared many of Carta’s customers, who threatened to leave. 

Days later, Carta announced that it was abandoning this business. Now it found a willing buyer in Public, Axios previously reported.

In an emailed statement to TC, Public said the customers of Carta Capital Markets who it acquired have a right to opt out. Meanwhile, Carta says isn’t out of the secondaries business altogether. It will continue to serve with “company-led secondary offerings, such as tender offers,” through its SEC-registered transfer agent, it says.