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Investment giant Fidelity has announced that it has acquired venture-backed fintech startup Showbox for an undisclosed amount.
Jason Furtado and Stefan Richter founded Boston-based Showbox in 2013, according to Crunchbase. The pair went on to raise a notable $10 million in funding for the company, along with investors including Austin-based Scout Ventures and Steve Papa. Atlas Ventures is the backer, the Wall Street Journal reported. All 40 Shoobx employees will join Fidelity.
Shoobx is a software provider that automates equity management operations and provides financial support to private companies “at all stages of development” through initial public offerings. Its services include helping companies send offer letters, offering equity to new employees, managing their capital tables and obtaining 409A valuation reports, among other things.
Shobx says on its website that it’s called “Carta on steroids” because “its ability rockets beyond what a map can do.” Meanwhile, Karta has raised $1.1 billion to date, including a peak $500 million round led by Silver Lake in August 2021, according to Karta’s Crunchbase data. At the time, the company was valued at $7.4 billion, according to the same source. So while we don’t know how much Shoobx was worth at the time of this purchase, it’s safe to say that the estimate could be lower than the map given how much it’s grown over time.
Fidelity, on the other hand, said that the acquisition of Showbox is a demonstration of its commitment to the private market. The last time Fidelity bought another company was in 2015. In 2015, the wealth planning software company acquired Emony Advisors, according to a company spokesperson.
Shoobx will be integrated 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, more than $250 billion in plan value. Stock Plan Services is part of Fidelity’s Workplace Investing division, one of the nation’s leading providers of workplace benefits.
According to the Showbox website, the two companies were partners prior to this announcement.
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