EquityBee Raises $6.6M For Launching Employee Stock Options Funding Solution in the US

Startup Employees in the US are losing $30B every year in unexercised stock options, as 50% do not exercise their stock options. EquityBee is launching today in the US to enable startup employees to obtain the capital they need to exercise their stock options.

We are pleased to announce our recent funding round of $6.6M. The round was led by Group11, with participation from Battery Ventures and LocalGlobe. In the past year, we have enabled hundreds of Israeli startup employees to exercise their stock options, and now we will leverage our experience and vast Investor Community to support the US market.

In the United States, Startup employees, the company builders, forgo 50% of $60 Billion in unexercised stock options every year. When employees leave their startup, they have a limited amount of time to exercise their stock options before they expire. The cost to exercise can reach hundreds of thousands and sometimes millions of dollars, as the employee is required to purchase their stock as well as potentially pay substantial taxes on the theoretical profit at the time of exercising the options. Very few employees have these financial resources available, causing 50% of employees to forgo their stock options, lose their hard-earned equity and the right of participating in the future success of the company they helped to build.

We connect the startup builders with our Investor Community. This enables the builders to obtain all of the capital they need to exercise their stock options and pay the taxes, become a shareholder and take part in the company’s success. EquityBee Investors Community includes thousands of investors from all over the world, including family offices, funds and accredited investors looking for a new way to invest in companies that were previously inaccessible to them. The employee and the investors share a portion of any future exit gains.

In recent years we have taken over the Israeli market while helping hundreds of employees from more than one hundred different companies including Taboola, MyHeritage, SimilarWeb, MagicLeap, IronSource and many more.

“As a serial entrepreneur and being part of the startup sphere for the last 15 years, I have witnessed countless employees, colleagues, and friends lose out on a significant part of their compensation because they couldn’t afford to exercise the options they worked so hard to earn. EquityBee is changing the situation and helping startup builders. We have successfully solved this problem for Israeli employees, and now EquityBee is ready to support every startup builder in the US,” says Oren Barzilai, CEO of EquityBee. “Our mission is to enable all startup builders to own their hard-earned equity and their share from the company they helped build.”

“The US is home to over 525,000 tech companies employing over 11.2 million tech workers of whom 6 million work for private tech companies. While inconceivable, as it stands today, a vast amount of these workers do not get to exercise or finance their stock options thus lose annually about $30 Billion. This is why we invested in EquityBee. EquityBee aims to solve this massive market failure and help millions of employees realize what is rightfully theirs. The solution the company offers is a no brainer for all parties involved: the employees, the startup companies employing them and the investors using EquityBee. After witnessing their success in Israel, Group 11 is excited to be a leading backer of EquityBee in its important mission to help U.S. employees. The sky’s the limit for EquityBee and we’re excited to be on their team and Board of Directors.” says Dovi Frances, Founding Partner at Group 11.

About EquityBee

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 $8.3M to date, from leading VCs including Group11, Battery Ventures, LocalGlobe, as well as CEOs and entrepreneurs.

As part of the recent funding round, Dovi Frances, General Partner and founder of Group11, a leading Silicon Valley fintech VC, is joining the company’s Board of Directors.