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Our mission is to empower startup employees to participate in the success of the companies they helped build. While receiving employee stock options should be a life-changing financial opportunity, the value of these options remain inaccessible and illiquid until an exit event. In addition, employees who leave their company prior to an exit often can't afford the exercise cost. We’re here to fix this problem. By utilizing our global investor network, employees can get the funding they need to exercise their options and become shareholders in their companies. At the same time, we give employees the ability to create liquidity for some of their equity immediately, without forfeiting their ownership. This gives startup employees a unique opportunity to truly take control of their financial futures.
We accept funding requests from employees of high-growth, VC-backed startups. These requests are presented as investment opportunities to our global network of investors, who provide employees with the funding they need. In exchange, employees agree to share a portion of the future stock value with the participating investors following a successful exit.
To date, we've helped over 4,000 startup employees exercise their stock options and become shareholders. Our platform features hundreds of leading startups across a wide range of industries, including fintech, artificial intelligence, education, healthcare, cleantech, and others.
Yes, many of the employees who received funding from our investor network have experienced successful exits at the companies they helped build. Examples include Monday, Unity, Palantir, Airbnb, Affirm, Procore Technologies, Oscar Health, Coursera, Payoneer, Sprinklr, Confluent, 23andMe, QuantumScape and many more.
Signing up is simple and free of charge. Click on “Sign Up” in the top right corner of this page and get started by registering as an employee or investor.
To reset your password, please head over to equitybee.com/forgot-password. Fill in your email address and click on “Reset Password” to receive a reset link.
Head over to our Contact Us page to see all the ways you can get in touch.
Securities on our platform are offered through EquityBee Securities, LLC a member of FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) and SIPC (Securities Investor Protection Corporation). You can learn more about this entity at brokercheck.finra.org.
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Equitybee was founded in 2018. Since then, our community has grown to over 40,000 startup employees and accredited investors worldwide. We operate in both the United States and in Israel.
Equitybee was founded by childhood friends Oren Barzilai, Oded Golan, and Mody Radashkovich, who have a combined 45 years of experience in the technology and finance industries. After seeing many of their friends and colleagues lose out on a significant part of their compensation because they couldn’t afford to exercise their stock options, Equitybee’s founders started this company to help startup employees own their hard-earned shares.
We’re backed by top-tier VCs like Group 11, Greenfield Partners, Battery Ventures, and Zeev Ventures.
Equitybee provides you with the funding you need to exercise your options with no out-of-pocket fees. In addition, eligible employees also have the opportunity to create liquidity for their equity and convert their options into cash without waiting for an exit. With Equitybee, you will always remain the sole owner of your shares and will participate in the success of your company in the event of an exit, IPO, or any other liquidity event. Sign Up now to find out if you're qualified!
Following a successful exit, you will share a portion of the stock value with the investors who helped you. Therefore, you will keep a lower amount of the total proceeds (if any) from the exit event than you would have had you exercised your stock options independently. However, if your company doesn't exit or goes out of business, you will not owe anything to the investors.
Any employee who works or has worked for a private company and has vested stock options or shares worth at least $10,000 may be eligible for funding.
We encourage you to sign up for Equitybee as soon as possible! Once you’ve signed up, you’ll be able to enter your options or share information to find out if you qualify for funding and/or liquidity. You can start the process with Equitybee whether or not you’re planning to leave your current company. If you are not currently qualified for funding, we will be sure to reach out if anything changes in the future. Sign up now to get started.
Yes! Sign up now and input your equity information to find out if you qualify for liquidity or reimbursed funding.
No, at this time we do not support RSUs. We support stock options, such as ISOs and NSOs (including reimbursements for exercised options).
At Equitybee, we are not a secondary market. Rather, with Equitybee you might secure immediate cash, as you may do with secondary, but without selling your equity, and without going through the often long and complex process of secondary transactions.
Moreover, because you retain ownership of your shares, you leave the option open to enjoy additional profit in case of a successful exit event in the future. A successful exit is defined as one in which the proceeds from a liquidity event exceed the total funding amount (plus interest and fees).
You can sign up to Equitybee for free. If you receive funding, you will only be required to pay back your funding if your company has a successful exit event! In this case, you’ll repay the original funding amount, including a 5% placement fee, plus interest and the predetermined share value. You will also pay a 5% stock appreciation fee.
Our mission is to empower you to participate in the success of the company you helped build. As such, you only have to pay our 5% commission fee if you generate a profit from your hard-earned equity. In other words, if you earn nothing, you pay nothing!
As part of your registration, you’ll be asked to provide us with basic information about yourself and your stock options or shares. Next, we'll present your funding request to our global investor network. If a successful match is found, you and the participating investors will sign separate contracts to finalize the process. Funding is not guaranteed.
To get the process going, you’ll be asked to provide us with your stock option grant notice, your option plan, and a proof of your vested options. If you use Carta, you can simply link your account to your Equitybee profile. You’ll also be asked to agree to a credit and background check. Once you receive the required funding, you’ll be asked to prove that you exercised your options.
Yes. You can request funding to exercise all of your vested stock options or just some of your options. Depending on investors’ interest in the funding opportunity, you may receive all or a portion of the funding requested.
We present qualified funding opportunities to our investor network. We do our best to provide every employee with the funding they need, but it’s ultimately up to investors to decide whether to fund your stock options.
Once you get funded, you'll exercise your stock options and become a shareholder of the company you helped build. You’ll be required to provide evidence of the exercise and keep us updated on any relevant information you receive regarding your shares, particularly IPOs, acquisitions, or other exits at your company.
Yes. Once you exercise your stock options, you become the rightful owner of the shares. They will remain in your name on the company's books and records throughout the process.
Following a successful exit, you’ll be able to choose between settling in cash (by selling your shares and transferring a portion of the proceeds) and settling in shares (by transferring some of your shares) with the investors who helped you exercise your stock options. If you decide to settle in shares, you’ll be able to sell the remaining shares after the end of any applicable lockup period.
With Equitybee, you remain the sole shareholder of your equity. As such, you will be able to sell your shares during any relevant liquidity event that the company offers.
An exit is an acquisition, merger, initial public offering (IPO), or any other event at your company that allows shareholders to cash out some or all of their shares.
Following a successful exit, you’ll repay the original funding amount, including a 5% placement fee, plus interest and the predetermined share value. You will pay a 5% stock appreciation fee.
If there is no exit, or if your company goes out of business, you will not be required to pay investors anything.
With Equitybee, you gain unique access to high-growth, VC-backed startups, a previously inaccessible asset class. By funding employee stock options, you come in at past company valuations. In addition, employees are usually granted options for common stock, which is typically priced lower than preferred stock. Therefore, following a successful liquidity event your entry point could be much lower than that of other investors.
Startup investments are highly speculative, carry a high degree of risk, and are not suitable for every investor. Some of the companies presented on our platform will never have successful liquidity events, and there is no secondary market for our products at the moment. In addition, your investment will be highly illiquid, and loss of invested capital is possible. Finally, funding employee stock options comes with the counterparty risk that the employee breaches the contract. See the disclosure materials and subscription documents for additional information.
Our platform features leading startups across a wide range of industries, including financial services and insurance, AI/ML, education, healthcare, hardware, cleantech, transportation, logistics, cybersecurity, space, robotics, precision manufacturing, nano-tech, AR/VR, IoT, marketing and advertising, agriculture, biotech, telecom, technology infrastructure, e-commerce, gaming, and entertainment. Most companies on our platform have raised at least $50 million in funding, are backed by well-known venture capital or private equity firms, and have completed at least one funding round over the last three years.
Yes. We perform both background and credit checks on employees seeking funding to exercise their stock options.
Equitybee takes several steps to mitigate counterparty risk for our investors. Before adding an option offer to the platform, we manually review the employee’s background and credit against extensive criteria. We also verify the validity of the option package. Following funding, we continue to maintain regular contact with the employee. When a liquidity event occurs, we engage closely with the employee to process the settlement and deliver the proceeds to investor. Every employee who gets funding through Equitybee has a contractual obligation to settle the transaction immediately following a successful liquidity event. In the event of a breach of contract, we will pursue legal action to force compliance with the contract terms.
Our offers are available only to accredited investors. To determine whether you qualify as an accredited investor, sign up as an investor and go through our quick onboarding process.
Accredited investors are generally defined by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) as individuals who have at least one of the following:
1. An annual income of $200,000+ (or $300,000+ jointly with a spouse) in each of the last two years, and who reasonably expects the same for the current year.
2. A net worth of $1,000,000+ (either alone or jointly with a spouse), excluding the value of the person's primary residence.
3. An active FINRA Series 7, 65, or 82 registration or an approved designation as deemed appropriate by the SEC.
4. Other categories include legal entities like banks, broker-dealers, insurance companies, any entity in which all equity owners are accredited investors, and entities with assets that exceed $5,000,000.
No. We do not facilitate capital raising for private companies.
No. We do not facilitate the purchasing of shares directly from employees.
As part of the registration, you’ll be asked to provide us with basic information about yourself and the investment experience. You’ll then be presented with various investment opportunities, select the ones that interest you, and choose your investment amount. Next, your Investor Relations Manager will walk you through the rest of the process and answer any questions you may have. Finally, you’ll confirm your accreditation status, review disclosure materials, sign subscription documents, and wire your investment to our fund manager.
Upon funding an employee's stock options, investors pay a brokerage fee of 5%. Following a successful liquidity event, if any, you may also pay a carry percentage of 5% of the remainder in excess of the original investment amount.
Yes. Once registered, you will be able to add companies and industries of interest to your Wishlist. You’ll also be able to filter offers by VC, total funding raised, offer terms, and more. If you are interested in a specific company that’s not currently featured on our platform, please let us know by contacting us at investors@equitybee.com.
Yes. However, there is a limit on the maximum investment amount per offer that can be funded with retirement money. Your Investor Relations Manager will work with you to determine eligibility.
The minimum investment amount accepted by Equitybee is $10,000 per offer.
As of October 31, 2024, over 99% of proceeds from liquidity events have been successfully delivered to Equitybee investors since inception (As of November 2019, when Equitybee began operating in the US).
Once you fund an employee’s stock options, the employee will be obligated to exercise their options using the funds you provided. The agreement signed by employees requires them to provide updates on relevant information regarding the shares, such as any liquidity event at the company.
No. Your investment is not considered a loan because, among other factors, there is no recourse or collateral involved in the investment process. In addition, since there is no guarantee of a liquidity event, you may lose some or all of your initial investment.
A liquidity event is an acquisition, merger, initial public offering (IPO), or any other event at the company that allows shareholders to cash out some or all of their shares.
Following a successful liquidity event, you will receive your initial investment back – with interest – as well as a portion of the stock value. The employee will be required to share the stock value in either cash or shares shortly after the end of any applicable lockup period.
Employees have a contractual agreement to settle the transaction immediately after a successful liquidity event. That being said, funding employee stock options carries the counterparty risk that the employee breaches their contract. In the event of a breach of contract, we would take legal action to force compliance with the contract terms.
If the company goes out of business, you will not receive your initial investment back, nor will you receive any accrued interest.