During 2020, the amount of capital raised by EquityBee to fund employee stock options has multiplied by over 5X, the individual employees funded through the platform grew by over 3X. The Investor Community composed of family offices, funds, and high-net individuals has grown 7X in 2020.
We are pleased to announce our recent round, raising $20M in Series A funding. The round is led by Group 11 with the participation of Oren Zeev Ventures, Battery Ventures, and ICON Continuity Fund. In the past year, we’ve significantly grown, enabling us to fund startup employees looking to exercise their stock options during the pandemic.
Since launching in the US in February 2020, we have funded employees from hundreds of companies, including from recently IPOed companies such as Airbnb, Palantir, Doordash, QuantumScape, Unity, JFrog, and more.
This year especially, we’re proud to provide funding to startup employees who have helped build the startup they worked for by leveraging our investor community, which has also grown by 700% in 2020. Employees receive 100% of the needed funding to cover the cost of exercising their stock options and the taxes, and in return, the investors and employees share future gain in case of a liquidity event.
This round of investment will be used to accelerate growth, hiring for all departments, and expand product offerings
“As a serial entrepreneur who’s been part of the startup sphere for the last 15 years from all its aspects as an employee and a founder, I have witnessed countless colleagues and friends lose out on a significant part of their compensation because they didn’t understand the unclear stock options system, and couldn’t afford to exercise the options they worked so hard to earn. EquityBee is changing the situation and helping startup builders” says our CEO, Oren Barzilai. “2020 was a big year for tech and created a lot of interest among investors looking for alternative venues to invest in pre-IPO employee stock options. This year’s events showed the importance of employee stock options and the potential for startup builders to own their hard-earned equity and participate in the success of the company they helped build.”
“Over the past year, since Group 11 led EquityBee’s Seed round, we have witnessed a remarkable triple-digit growth of the company. We are now convinced that EquityBee not only has the perfect product-market fit but that the strong founding team also has what it takes to become the uncontested market leader.” Says Dovi Farnces, Founding Partner, Group 11. “EquityBee’s scalable tech solution has the potential to help millions of tech employees gain access to liquidity in a market otherwise set up against them. Our decision to double down on EquityBee is an easy one and we are pleased to continue supporting the company”.
About EquityBee
EquityBee connects startup employees who have helped build the startup they have worked for with investors from their Investor Community. The employee receives 100% funding for the stock option package and the taxes needed to be paid, and in return, the investors and employee share future gain in case of a liquidity event.
Founded by Oren Barzilai, CEO, Oded Golan, CPO, and Mody Radashkovich, COO. Barzilai and Golan are serial entrepreneurs and childhood friends. Barzilai founded Tapingo which was acquired by GrubHub in 2018 for $150 million.
EquityBee raised $28.3M to date, from leading VCs including Group11, Battery Ventures, Zeev Ventures, and LocalGlobe, as well as CEOs and entrepreneurs.
