Carta Inc., a startup that helps tech firms and other companies manage their equity, has sold some of its own equity through a massive new funding round that was announced today.

Carta has raised a hefty $300 million investment led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from more than a half-dozen other prominent backers. Among them were Lightspeed Venture Partners, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Meritech Capital. The round values Carta at $1.7 billion, more than double what it was worth after its previous raise in December.

The startup sells a suite of cloud services that simplify the administrative work involved in funding rounds, employee stock compensation and related transactions. One service focuses on managing capitalization tables, the documents detailing who owns what stake in a private company. Another offering helps startups determine the value of their equity based on data from other firms.

Around the middle of last year, Carta started branching out to adjacent markets in pursuit of new revenue streams. Last July, the company launched a set of tools and professional services for private companies in the process of filing for an initial public offering. It more recently introduced a platform to help venture capital firms manage their investments.

Carta plans to use the new funding to expand its product portfolio even further. Specifically, Chief Executive Henry Ward (pictured) told TechCrunch that his vision is to create a “private stock market” to connect the companies and investors who use its various services. The startup’s offerings are used by more than 11,000 companies along with more than 140 venture capital firms.

“We’ll use our new funding to enable liquidity across our network,” Ward wrote in a blog post. “Private markets are so illiquid that founders and employees often wait a decade for an IPO to earn money from their equity. We think it’s time for this to change.”

Carta has raised over $447 million in funding over five rounds.

Photo: Carta