Israeli startup EquityBee raises $20M in Series A funding to accelerate growth and help startup employees exercise their stock options

Every year, startup employees in the United States forgo 50 percent of $60 billion in unexercised stock options. When employees leave their startups, 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.

As such 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. EquityBee is a Tel Aviv, Israel-based startup that is helping to solve this massive failure by helping startup employees get the money they need to exercise their stock options before they expire.

A year ago, we wrote about EquityBee after it launched in the US with $6.6 million in funding to help startup employees exercise their stock options. Today, EquityBee announced it has raised a $20 million in Series A funding to accelerate growth, make additional hires across all departments, and expand product offerings. The round is led by Group 11 with participation from Oren Zeev Ventures, Battery Ventures, and ICON Continuity Fund. The round brings EquityBee’s total funding to more than $28M.

EquityBee saw high triple-digit growth in 2020, growing capital raised to fund employee stock options by over 560%, and the number of employees funded through the platform by over 360%. EquityBee’s Investor Community, which comprises of family offices, funds, and high net-worth individuals, grew by 700%.

After launching in Israel in 2018, EquityBee has grown quickly, expanding to the US market in 2020. To date, EquityBee has funded employees from hundreds of companies, including recently IPOed companies such as Airbnb, Palantir, QuantumScape, Unity, and jFrog among others.

EquityBee provides funding to startup employees who have helped build successful pre-IPO companies by leveraging its Investor Community. The employees receive 100% of the needed capital to cover the cost of exercising their stock options and taxes, and in return, the investors and employees share future gains in liquidity events.

“As a serial entrepreneur who has been part of the startup ecosystem for the last 15 years and experienced it from all levels, from employee to founder, I have witnessed countless colleagues and friends lose out on a significant portion of their compensation because they didn’t understand the convoluted stock options system, and couldn’t afford to exercise the options they worked so hard to earn. EquityBee is removing this barrier and helping startup builders access the equity they have earned” says Oren Barzilai, CEO of EquityBee.

“After leading EquityBee’s Seed round, we have witnessed the company’s remarkable triple-digit growth over the past year. We are now convinced that EquityBee not only has the perfect product-market fit but that the strong founding team also has what it takes to become the uncontested market leader,” says Dovi Frances, Founding Partner of Group 11. “EquityBee’s scalable tech solution has the potential to help millions of tech employees gain access to liquidity in a market otherwise set up against them. Our decision to double down on EquityBee is an easy one and we are pleased to continue supporting the company.”