14 eToro employees used Equitybee to fund the exercise of their stock options between January 2020 and March 2024 - without spending any personal savings. When eToro went public on Nasdaq in May 2025, these employees collectively retained $1,335,924 in proceeds, keeping an average of 58.50% of the upside.
Equitybee connected them with investors who covered the full $418,483 exercise cost; employees only repaid after eToro's successful IPO. eToro's path to the public markets spanned 18 years and included a canceled $10.4 billion SPAC deal in 2022 (TechCrunch) and a valuation reset to $3.5 billion before the company ultimately listed at a $4.2 billion valuation (CNBC).
Etoro Group IPO
May 14, 2025
(Nasdaq: ETOR)
$418,483
$1,335,924
58.50%
Employees at eToro earned meaningful stock option grants over the company's 18-year journey from a Tel Aviv startup to a global social trading platform with over 40 million users. But like many startup employees, deciding how and when to exercise stock options isn't always straightforward.
For some, the upfront exercise cost was significant. For others, it was not about affordability at all, but about managing personal financial risk, preserving liquidity, or avoiding tying up savings while the company's future valuation was still uncertain. eToro's path to the public markets was particularly winding, with a canceled SPAC deal in 2022 and a major valuation reset from $10.4 billion to $3.5 billion before the eventual IPO in May 2025.
Common considerations employees faced:
• Exercising can require tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars upfront
• Taxes, particularly AMT on ISOs, often create unexpected additional liabilities
• Employees may not want to lock up personal savings in a single illiquid, high-risk asset
• According to Carta, nearly 70% of employees ultimately walk away from their equity
These fourteen eToro employees chose a different path. They turned to Equitybee to fund the exercise of their stock options, without risking their own savings.
From January 2020 to March 2024, 14 eToro employees used Equitybee to fund the full cost of exercising their stock options. With Equitybee, they secured a total of $418,483 in funding, which covered each employee's exercise price and associated taxes, enabling them to convert into full shareholders.
Here's how it worked for eToro employees:
• No personal cash required to exercise
• No loans, no debt, no personal liability*
• Equitybee investors provided the full exercise capital
• Employees retained their shares and became full shareholders
• Repayment occurred only after eToro's successful IPO|
Whether the decision was driven by affordability, risk management, or simply a preference not to deploy personal capital, Equitybee provided a path to ownership without the financial exposure.
*Assumes you comply with the agreement terms.
When eToro went public on Nasdaq on May 14, 2025, these 14 employees were shareholders. As is standard with most IPOs, employees were subject to a lockup period and could not sell their shares immediately after the listing. Distributions were made in December 2025, following the expiration of the lockup. Without exercising their options through Equitybee, they would not have held shares at the time of the IPO and would have forfeited their upside entirely.
14 eToro employees collectively retained $1,335,924 in proceeds from eToro's Nasdaq IPO after using Equitybee to fund the exercise of their stock options - without having spent any of their own savings.
$418,483
$3,051,891
$1,335,924
67.03%
The data above reflects start-up employees that received funding to exercise their stock options through the US subsidiary Equitybee Securities Inc. (EBS) and the Israel Subsidiary Equitybee Technologies Inc. Equitybee Securities executes the private financing contract (PFC) and Equitybee Technologies executes SOFAs (Simple Options Funding Agreements). The SOFA differs from the PFC in terms of fee structures, regulatory requirements and other conditions.
eToro is another example: exercising stock options is not just about affordability - it's about timing, risk exposure, liquidity preference, and long-term financial strategy.
Thousands of startup employees have already used Equitybee to fund the exercise of their stock options, including employees at Reddit, SpaceX, Databricks, Klarna, Stripe, Monday.com, Affirm, Rippling, Discord, Wiz, and many others. As of the date this case study was published, Equitybee has facilitated $271M+ in total capital, created 2,800+ new shareholders, and funded employees across 870+ pre-IPO companies.
Frequently asked questions
14 eToro employees used Equitybee's non-recourse funding model to cover the full cost of exercising their stock options between January 2020 and March 2024. Equitybee connected them with investors who provided $418,483 in capital, covering exercise prices and associated taxes. The employees retained their shares and became full shareholders, repaying only after eToro's IPO in May 2025.
eToro employees who exercised their stock options through Equitybee collectively retained $1,335,924 in proceeds from the company's Nasdaq IPO. On average, employees kept 58.50% of the upside from their exercised options. Through Equitybee, these employees participated in eToro's IPO upside without risking any of their own capital
Non-recourse stock option funding is a financing model where an investor covers the cost of exercising an employee's stock options. The employee retains their shares and only repays from the proceeds if there is a liquidity event that results in the shares becoming liquid, such as an IPO, acquisition, tender offer, or secondary sale. If no such event occurs, the employee owes nothing. As of the date this case study was published, Equitybee has facilitated this model for employees at over 870 pre-IPO companies.
No. Equitybee uses a non-recourse funding structure, meaning the employee's repayment obligation is tied to a liquidity event that results in the shares becoming liquid - such as an IPO, acquisition, tender offer, or secondary sale. If no such event occurs, the employee does not owe anything. The financial risk of the exercise is borne by the investor, not the employee.
Equitybee can help employees who are still employed as well as those who have left and are within their post-termination exercise window. Many employees face a 90-day deadline to exercise options after leaving a company, and the cost of exercising - often tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars - makes Equitybee's non-recourse model especially valuable in these situations.
As of the date this case study was published, Equitybee's average funding timeline is approximately 14 days from application to capital delivery. In fast-track situations, funding can be completed in as few as 2-3 days. The process is designed to meet time-sensitive deadlines, such as post-termination exercise windows or pending liquidity events.
Sources:
• eToro IPO pricing and Nasdaq debut - CNBC
• eToro Series F and SPAC cancellation - TechCrunch
• eToro IPO valuation - Times of Israel
• Startup compensation data - Carta
