Equity management provider Pulley will shut down all operations on December 8, 2026, after a seven-year effort to compete with industry leader Carta. The company raised more than $50 million from prominent investors including Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Stripe, and 8VC, but it was ultimately unable to break Carta's hold on the cap table software market. In a move that underscores the sector's consolidation, Carta will now absorb Pulley's customers through a structured migration program.
The Closure and Customer Transition
Pulley founder Yin Wu communicated the shutdown directly to users in a note thanking them for seven years of support and partnership. In a LinkedIn post, Wu said that although this chapter is closing, she and many of the company's strongest team members have no intention of exiting quietly. The company did not specify what Wu or the remaining team will pursue next.
Migration Terms and Market Consolidation
Under the transition arrangement, Carta has agreed to help move Pulley users onto its platform before the December cutoff. Customers who switch will retain their existing Pulley pricing for a full year, and any unused portion of their Pulley subscription will be credited toward the new Carta account. This competitive gesture from the dominant incumbent suggests that absorbing a rival's book of business is more valuable than allowing customers to scatter among smaller alternatives such as Ledgy, Cake, or Eqvista.
A Scandal That Failed to Open the Market
Carta appeared vulnerable in January 2024 when Linear's chief executive accused the company of misusing confidential cap table data to support its secondary trading business. Carta chief executive Henry Ward admitted the outreach breached privacy protocols, and the company exited secondaries within days. The episode contributed to a valuation decline from roughly $7.4 billion in 2021 to between $3.3 billion and $3.5 billion by 2024 and 2025.
Why Carta's Core Business Held
Despite that reputational hit, Carta's core business remained largely intact because the shuttered secondaries unit generated only about $3 million in annual revenue. By comparison, its cap table product brings in roughly $250 million per year, with fund administration adding about $100 million and private equity services contributing another $20 million. By mid-2025, Ward said Carta was approaching $500 million in annual recurring revenue, a sign of how durable its core operations have become.
The Moat That Outlasted a Challenger
Pulley was among the best funded startups to challenge Carta, and its failure highlights the structural difficulty of displacing an entrenched cap table provider. Cap table software is not a tool that companies change easily because it serves as the legal record of ownership and is tied to 409A valuations, option grants, and board approvals. The friction involved in moving that data creates a powerful moat that even a genuine breach of trust could not fully erode.
What Customers Need to Do
For current Pulley customers, the immediate priority is verifying eligibility for the Carta migration offer before the December 8 cutoff. Pulley is directing existing users to log into their accounts to review their options, while new prospective customers are being pointed directly to Carta's website. The guidance leaves little ambiguity about where the cap table market is heading.
The shutdown of Pulley closes one of the most visible attempts to challenge Carta in the equity management software market. Although the company delivered a real product and built a genuine customer base, its more than $50 million in funding was not enough to overcome the switching costs that protect the incumbent. As the December deadline approaches, the migration of Pulley's customers to Carta confirms that the market is consolidating firmly around a single dominant provider.