Introducing Portfolio Valuations: Cap tables, waterfalls, and fund accounting on one platform

Private Equity CFOs, valuation, and deal teams know how crucial it is to report out accurate, timely valuations—especially given increasing LP demands and regulatory scrutiny. 

But the process of doing so is often a headache. Data is scattered across disparate sources and stored in multiple spreadsheets, with calculations living in Excel and owned by different teams. This patchwork of information makes it difficult to get a single, reliable number. Manually collecting, consolidating, and standardizing data and sharing valuations via email or other non-secure methods is error-prone and opens funds up to costly delays, damaged LP relationships, and compliance risks.

That’s about to change. Today, we're excited to introduce Portfolio Valuations, the next evolution of valuations tools from Carta. Portfolio Valuations is designed to help streamline the otherwise complex and time-consuming valuation process, increasing data visibility and enabling GPs and fund CFOs to build trust among internal leaders, LPs, and auditors.

This fully integrated solution automatically brings cap tables, portco financials, market data, waterfall modeling, schedule of investments (SOI) updates, and the accounting system all onto one platform, optimizing and simplifying the end-to-end valuation workflow. It’s built for PE firms who prioritize operational efficiency and accuracy, and are looking to consolidate their tech stacks. 

And it’s part of the new standard in fund admin: Carta’s  suite of products now connects valuations, tax and compliance, fund reporting, portfolio analytics, and LP portfolio management in a  single integrated platform—a Network ERP for Private Capital.

The entire valuations process, transformed

For the first time, data seamlessly flows from cap tables, portco financials, and market data into the valuation engine, leading to automatic updating of SOI and the general ledger. Through this connectivity, Portfolio Valuations provides reliable and auditable valuations, offering real-time financial visibility for informed decision-making and risk management by CFOs.

The new, modern valuations workflow leverages technology to yield a new level of clarity and portfolio insights:

• Data collection and ingestion

  • Portfolio Valuations can collect cap table information whether or not the portco is on Carta Cap Table, as well as collecting portco financials—either directly from the company using Carta Data Collection, or by user upload to our LLM digestion tool, eliminating the need for manual data input. During this process, all non-uniform  proto data is standardized for the valuation engine. At the same time,  best-in-class market data is pulled on comparables based on industry, financials, size, stage, and other factors.

• Calculation

  • With Portfolio Valuations, enterprise value can be determined using any valuation method selected by the customer (for example, public comps, discounted cash flow [DCF], and transaction multiples). 

• Allocation 

  • Based on the enterprise value, Portfolio Valuations displays the holdings value for each fund and makes clear via waterfall modeling  how the overall company value is distributed. By connecting the company valuation with the allocation tools, Carta provides a comprehensive view of how value is created and distributed across the company, enabling more accurate reporting and strategic decision-making.

• SOI updating

  • Portfolio Valuations integrates directly with Carta’s Fund Admin. Once the valuation is complete, Portfolio Valuations updates the Schedule of Investments (SOI)  and the entire downstream accounting system  with the new holding value automatically. The integration also attaches the valuation export to the journal entry to make it easy to review come audit season.

With these improved workflows, Portfolio Valuations puts control in the hands of fund managers and CFOs, resulting in tangible efficiencies and greater insights:

• Enhanced transparency and control

  • Real-time access to investment positions  and performance, leading to more informed decision-making

• Significant time and resource savings

  • Integrated solution means no more manual reconciliations and data wrangling across multiple systems

• Peace of mind

  • Automation eliminates human errors

  • Audit-defensible valuations give LPs confidence and put auditors at ease

Setting a new standard in fund admin

With increasing compliance scrutiny and LP expectations, now is the time to adopt solutions that can keep you at the forefront. Carta Portfolio Valuations is the latest such  solution—an end-to-end, integrated product that empowers you to run valuations quickly and accurately, giving you the data you need to thrive in today's dynamic market.