PALO ALTO — EquityBee, an employee-focused stock options funding solution, has landed $55 million in new Series B funding. The round was led by existing investor Group 11, with participation from new investors Israel-based Greenfield Partners, as well as existing investors Battery Ventures, Local Globe/Latitude, Altair and ICON. The investment will be used to advance development of EquityBee’s proprietary technology platform, expand best-in-class product and service offerings, and accelerate leadership hiring in EquityBee’s Palo Alto- and Tel Aviv-based offices
Group 11 led EquityBee’s Seed and Series A rounds; the Series B—raised ahead of schedule and demonstrating significant confidence in the company’s rapid and consistent growth—increases EquityBee’s total funding to $83 million.
Through its proprietary financial technology-driven platform, EquityBee provides funding to startup employees of growth stage to pre-IPO companies. By working with EquityBee, startup employees receive capital to exercise stock options before they expire, which enables them to participate in their companies’ liquidity events and actually get what they earned.
Since 2020, EquityBee has seen over 500% year over year growth in total capital raised from its Investor Network to exercise employee stock options. The number of employees funded through the platform has increased by over 350%. EquityBee’s Investor Network, including family offices, funds, and high net-worth individuals, grew by over 430%.
EquityBee will leverage its Series B funding to scale its offering, launch additional industry-defining solutions and tools, and provide risk-free financial support to help startup employees exercise their earned options in the pre-IPO and high-growth marketplace. “With so many exit events occurring, including acquisitions and SPACs, the startup equity system remains inequitable,” said Oren Barzilai, EquityBee co-founder and CEO. “We launched EquityBee to empower more employees to share in the success of the businesses they helped build. EquityBee will continue to provide them the tools required to better understand their earned options and the freedom to take part in augmenting their net-worth.”
“After leading EquityBee’s Seed and Series A rounds, we have witnessed the company’s continued triple-digit growth over the past year. The extraordinary founding team has demonstrated a great product-market fit, and their work continues to distance EquityBee as a true market leader,” said Dovi Frances, Founding Partner of Group 11. “EquityBee’s industry-defining tech solutions will help millions of tech employees gain access to liquidity in a market otherwise set up against them. Our decision to scale our investment so soon after our previous round is an easy one, and we are pleased to continue supporting the company and its unprecedented growth.”