Fidelity makes first acquisition in 7 years, snapping up fintech Shoobx

Investment giant Fidelity announced today that it has acquired Shoobx, a venture-backed fintech startup, for an undisclosed amount.

Jason Furtado and Stephan Richter founded Boston-based Shoobx in 2013, according to Crunchbase. The pair went on to raise a known $10 million in funding for the company with investors such as Austin-based Scout Ventures and Steve Papa. Atlas Ventures is also a backer, according to the Wall Street Journal. All 40 of Shoobx’s employees will join Fidelity.

Shoobx is a provider of automated equity management operations and financing software to private companies “at all growth stages,” up to and including an initial public offering. Services it offers include helping companies send offer letters, grant equity to new employees, manage their cap tables and get a 409A valuation report, among other things.

On its website, Shoobx notes that it has been called “Carta on steroids” because its “capabilities rocket past what Carta can provide.” Meanwhile, Carta Crunchbase data indicates that Carta has raised $1.1 billion to date, including a massive $500 million round raised in August 2021, led by Silver Lake. At that time, the company was valued around $7.4 billion, per the same data source. So while we don’t know how much Shoobx was worth at the time of this acquisition, it’s safe to say that its valuation is likely less than that of Carta’s based on how much it has raised over time.

For its part, Fidelity said its purchase of Shoobx is a sign of its commitment to the private market “and will help to satisfy an increasing demand Fidelity sees from private companies to support them as they scale and grow.” The last time Fidelity acquired another company was in 2015, when it acquired wealth planning software company eMoney Advisor, according to a company spokesperson.

Shoobx will be folded into Fidelity’s Stock Plan Services business, which provides equity compensation plan recordkeeping and administration services to nearly 700 companies with 2.5 million plan participants, totaling over $250 billion in plan value. Stock Plan Services is part of Fidelity’s Workplace Investing division, one of the country’s leading workplace benefits providers.

According to Shoobx’s website, the two companies were partners prior to this announcement.

Fidelity makes first acquisition in 7 years, snapping up fintech Shoobx by Mary Ann Azevedo originally published on TechCrunch