Equitybee Platform Investments DPI Compared to Carta's 2024 VC Funds Performance

Published on April 9, 2025

DPI Performance: Equitybee Platform Investments vs. Top 10% VC Funds on Carta

Even during the more challenging years for venture liquidity, Equitybee platform investors received meaningful cash distributions.

And now, with signs of recovery — like the Google–Wiz acquisition, CoreWeave’s IPO, and a strong IPO indication from Klarna, Revolut, Circle and others — the outlook is improving.

Across every vintage from 2018 to 2023, Investments made via Equitybee have outperformed top 10% VC DPI benchmarks reported on Carta.

Equitybee Platform Investments DPI vs. Top 10% DPI of VCs on Carta 2024 VC Funds Performance report  

Vintage

Equitybee*

Top 10% DPI (Carta)

Ratio

2018

3.78x

0.46x

8.2x

2019

1.38x

0.33x

4.1x

2020

1.07x

0.17x

6.3x

2021

0.36x

0.02x

18.0x

2022

0.08x

0.00x

N/A

2023

0.17x

0.00x

N/A

*Past performance is not indicative of future results. Equitybee s DPI is defined as Total Net Investor Distributions divided by Total InvestedCapital (including fees) aggregated by vintage year. This performance data does not represent any investors portfolio or any model portfolio. Data reflects investments made through the Equitybee platform between 2018 and 2023 as of Dec 31, 2024Carta data source from its VC Fund Performance 2024 report : https://carta.com/data/vc-fund-performance-q4-2024-full-report/#dpi

Key Takeaway

Across all six vintages, aggregated DPI from all investments on the Equitybee platform exceeded the top 10% DPI of VC funds on the Carta 2024 report.
In certain vintage years, investors generated more than 8 times in actual cash returns vs the top 10% VC funds benchmark.

Carta’s own data highlights how difficult it is for VC funds to return capital quickly:

After 7 years, just 14.3% of 2017 vintage funds had a DPI greater than 1x.

By comparison, Equitybee-enabled investments have already surpassed that threshold for multiple vintages — in far less time:

2018 vintage:

DPI of 3.78x  after 6 years

2019 vintage:

DPI o f 1.38x  after 5 years

2020 vintage:

DPI of 1.07x  after 4 years

While DPI varies by deal and market conditions, these results highlight the pace and scale of distributions that Equitybee investors have realized — even before the broader liquidity rebound takes hold.

Why This Matters: DPI Is the Ultimate Measure of Liquidity

DPI — or Distributions to Paid-In Capital — reflects how much capital has actually been returned to investors. Actual realized returns are a key indicator to measure an investment.\With DPI levels reported 

by VC funds on Carta at or near zero in many recent vintages, Equitybee’s performance presents a differentiated outcome based on realized, distributed capital.

Validating the Edge: Equitybee Platform Investment’s Performance Across Benchmarks

This analysis follows our earlier DPI report, where we benchmarked Equitybee platform investments performance against PitchBook’s VC fund data — and similarly found strong outperformance against top-quartile and top 10% funds.

VC Fund Performance 2024 report provides a new benchmark — and the trend holds: Equitybee-enabled investments realized returns out performed the top 10% VC funds in the past 6 vintages at distributed capital.

Methodology Notes

Carta data reflects DPI benchmarks aggregated by vintage year from 2018 to 2023 as of Q4 2024 by U.S.-based venture capital funds on the Carta platform.

Equitybee data includes all investor proceeds distributed through the Equitybee platform relative to total capital invested (including fees), aggregated by vintage year from 2018 to 2023 as of Q4 2024

DPI (Distributions to Paid-In Capital) is a standard metric that represents realized returns as a ratio of capital returned to capital invested.

How Equitybee Achieves its Strong DPI Performance

Integration icon

Broad Access to Startups

Exposure to a wide range of pre-IPO companies.
Integration icon

Early Valuations

Investments at earlier valuations based on grant dates.
Integration icon

Discount to 409A

In-the-money investments due to a discount to 409A valuations.
The Problem that Creates Opportunity for Investors

Startup employees often receive stock options as part of their compensation. To convert these options into shares, employees must exercise their right to purchase these stock options, which involves significant upfront capital. Many employees cannot afford to do this, missing out on participating in the potential future success of the companies. Equitybee’s investors can provide the needed capital, allowing employees to exercise their options. In return, investors receive their initial investment, annual interest, and a percentage of the equity's value upon a successful liquidity event, such as an IPO or acquisition. This creates a mutually beneficial opportunity in a largely untapped market worth over $150 billion*.

Liquidity Considerations with Equitybee

Despite the aforementioned distribution drought from traditional US venture capital funds (mainly stemming from the lack of IPOs), Equitybee investments have continued to generate liquidity from a myriad of liquidity event types. This well-balanced mix means that Equitybee investors don’t need to rely on a hot IPO market to receive distributions. Additionally, tender offers (Equitybee’s historically highest performing liquidity event type) are a mostly unique exit route tied to the funding of employee stock options, which typically traditional VCs don’t have access to. Specifically, tender offers & secondaries liquidity events through Equitybee investments have delivered a 2.81x net multiple on invested capital in just under 2 years on average.

Realized Investments by Liquidity Event Type

How Equitybee Achieves its Strong DPI Performance

Integration icon

Broad Access to Startups

Exposure to a wide range of pre-IPO companies.
Integration icon

Early Valuations

Investments at earlier valuations based on grant dates.
Integration icon

Discount to 409A

In-the-money investments due to a discount to 409A valuations.
The Problem that Creates Opportunity for Investors

Startup employees often receive stock options as part of their compensation. To convert these options into shares, employees must exercise their right to purchase these stock options, which involves significant upfront capital. Many employees cannot afford to do this, missing out on participating in the potential future success of the companies. Equitybee’s investors can provide the needed capital, allowing employees to exercise their options. In return, investors receive their initial investment, annual interest, and a percentage of the equity's value upon a successful liquidity event, such as an IPO or acquisition. This creates a mutually beneficial opportunity in a largely untapped market worth over $150 billion*.

Liquidity Considerations with Equitybee

Despite the aforementioned distribution drought from traditional US venture capital funds (mainly stemming from the lack of IPOs), Equitybee investments have continued to generate liquidity from a myriad of liquidity event types. This well-balanced mix means that Equitybee investors don’t need to rely on a hot IPO market to receive distributions. Additionally, tender offers (Equitybee’s historically highest performing liquidity event type) are a mostly unique exit route tied to the funding of employee stock options, which typically traditional VCs don’t have access to. Specifically, tender offers & secondaries liquidity events through Equitybee investments have delivered a 2.81x net multiple on invested capital in just under 2 years on average.

Realized Investments by Liquidity Event Type

Liquidity event type
MOIC*
Time to liquidity**
IPOs
1.72x
18.7 Months
M&As
1.32x
29.8 Months
Tender Offer / Secondary
3.16x
20.6 Months
SPAC
1.7x
22.2 Months
Bankruptcy
0.00x
36.9 Months

*Multiple on Invested Capital (MOIC) is calculated as the net proceeds distributed to investors divided by their original investment. In the Equitybee model, net proceeds typically comprise the original principal, accrued annual interest (ranging from 3% to 5%), and the investor’s share of the equity value at the liquidity event (typically 20% to 45% of the funded shares). A 5% carried interest is applied to the accrued interest and the equity value share at distribution.

**Time to liquidity Indicates average time from investment date to distribution date, sourced from Equitybee’s proprietary data

Past performance is not indicative of future results. Private placements are speculative, illiquid, contain substantial risk and may result in the complete loss of capital to the investor. Consult your tax accountant as there may be tax considerations on profit amounts. Results may vary with each use and over time. Investor proceeds may be settled in cash or shares.

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810+
Startups
Equitybee investors have funded employee stock options in over 810 pre-IPO companies
243
Liquidity events
Equitybee investors have benefited from 243 unique liquidity events for 174 different companies
1.53X
MOIC*
The Multiple on Invested Capital net of fees, for investments on Equitybee was 1.53x
3,700+
Active customers
Over 3,700 investors and startup employees working together to fund stock options and provide liquidity.
26.2
Avg # of months to liquidity
For investments that reached liquidity, the average time to return was 26.2 months
76.56%
Median discount
Equitybee investors enjoyed an entry price that saw a median discount of 76.56% based on the last known share price paid by investors on the cap table

*Multiple on Invested Capital (MOIC) is calculated as the net proceeds distributed to investors divided by their original investment. In the Equitybee model, net proceeds typically comprise the original principal, accrued annual interest (ranging from 3% to 5%), and the investor’s share of the equity value at the liquidity event (typically 20% to 45% of the funded shares). A 5% carried interest is applied to the accrued interest and the equity value share at distribution.

Past performance is not indicative of future results. Private placements are speculative, illiquid, contain substantial risk and may result in the complete loss of capital to the investor. Consult your tax accountant as there may be tax considerations on profit amounts. Results may vary with each use and over time. Investor proceeds may be settled in cash or shares.