After building a strong foundation in Asia, Qapita launches in the Bay Area with plans to support early-stage U.S. startups navigating global ownership, compliance, and employee equity solutions.
Equity management platform Qapita is making its foray into the U.S. market, establishing a presence in the Bay Area and setting its sights on supporting American startups with global equity solutions.
The Singapore-headquartered company, which has grown steadily across South and Southeast Asia over the past six years, is now laying the groundwork to bring its end-to-end equity management services to North America.
In an exclusive interview with The American Bazaar, Amit Majumder, Qapita’s Head of Equity Management, detailed the company’s plans to expand into the United States, where it hopes to help early-stage businesses navigate the complexities of equity ownership from the ground up.
Founded six years ago with a mission to support businesses across Asia, the company has worked with startups from incorporation and early fundraising stages through to growth, scale, and maturity. Qapita emphasizes the critical role of ownership — both internal and external — in driving business success.
Founded in 2019 by Ravi Ravulaparthi, Lakshman Gupta, and Vamsee Mohan Kamabathula, Qapita is a Series A-funded company that has raised $39 million to date. Its investors include MassMutual Ventures, East Ventures, Vulcan Capital, Cercano Management, and Analog Partners.
The company has established its initial home in the U.S. in San Mateo, Calif.
“That’s where we opened our first office,” said Majumder. “Bay Area is obviously the heart of the startup ecosystem. So it made sense for us to establish our base there.” He added that there are plans to expand the team on both the East and West coasts to support customers across the country.
“Obviously, at some stage, we want to have people everywhere. But as a growing business, we need to be mindful of other resources. So we’re strategically planning on expanding as we scale,” he noted.
Majumder, who joined Qapita in 2022 and has worn multiple hats with the company — from overseeing Southeast Asia and ANZ operations to spearheading product development and customer success — has played an active role in ESOP education, led customer success, and worked intensively on the product side at Qapita.
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“Our entire mission is supporting companies from the very inception,” said Majumder, a seasoned chartered financial analyst (CFA) with leadership experience at Computershare, Solium, and Morgan Stanley. “We support them all the way through the growing pains, and increasing compliance, and all the other things that come into play as you go through that journey as a business till you reach the ultimate outcome where that allows all the early backers and early employees to really benefit from their hard work and loyalty and success.”
Majumder said rather than jumping into the U.S. market from day one, Qapita took a more strategic and measured approach, focusing first on building its product and achieving success in Asian markets.
“We wanted to build the product in our core markets, gain confidence, and then enter the U.S. as a more mature company,” he said, pointing out that the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia “have been pioneers in equity ownership in the past decades.”
“We initially focused our business and growth plans on establishing a solid foundation in the markets where we felt the need for support is the greatest. And having had initial success over the first couple of years of our operations in our home markets, we shifted our focus and expanded that to the North American market.”
Majumder also credited a strong global startup community with helping ease the transition.
“There’s a great network of founders expanding from places like India, Singapore, and Australia into the U.S. We help each other. We also work with U.S.-based startups expanding into Asia — they learn from us, and we learn from them.”
“The way we look at it, ownership and equity are global challenges,” he said. “What we initially aimed to do was solve it for markets where ownership culture has not progressed or is still nascent. So, we started with our core markets in Southeast Asia — Singapore, where our business is headquartered — as well as South Asia, predominantly India.”
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Majumder, who has overseen operations in multiple regions, pointed out that the U.S. has long been a model for startup success. “We all know how great Silicon Valley is. It’s home to so many great startups,” he said. “We see so many entrepreneurship and startup hubs popping all over the nation.” He noted that there was a “great spirit and culture and drive for innovation” in every corner of the world, including the United States.
Additionally, one of the major reasons Qapita is entering the U.S. market now is the growing trend of building teams globally.
“We see increasing number of companies hiring talent across borders,” Majumder said. “And this plays well into our main strengths. So because we build with international focus and a global sort of regional mindset from day one, our solutions, be it on a platform, consulting or expertise in international relations and cross-border reporting, really helps the businesses, whether they’re starting in Asia or whether they’re starting in the U.S., by looking to hire teams internationally to support them with those relevant compliance needs from day one.”
He also elaborated on the challenges the company would face, saying that while the U.S. is a big market with many opportunities, there is also a lot of competition. “But we think we provide a unique angle to assist customers who are looking for a new solution that can support them with their ambitions for growth,” he said.
Talking about Qapita’s target customer base, Majumder noted that they “support over two and a half thousand customers,” ranging from startups that are just getting started with a couple of co-founders and a small team, all the way to a large list of companies with tens of thousands of employees.
Majumder highlighted how Qapita’s solution was catered for across all stages, especially when it comes to employee equity ownership (EEO).
“Our offering kind of varies from early stages to mature businesses,” he said. “We help with initial fundraising, setting up that cap table, creating that initial stock plan and giving equity to the early employees. As the companies grow and scale, the valuation requirements, order requirements, financial reporting comes in. We assist with every step of the way. Obviously, as a company, you can’t target everyone, even though we try our best to provide services to all businesses.”
In the North American context, the company is targeting early stage businesses to establish a relationship with them early on, and to ensure things are done right from the start.
“Because what’s more painful […] is just trying to fix the mistakes later on when things become urgent and critical. So for that reason, we’re targeting a lot of the early stage companies as they go through initial fundraising. We’ll look to establish a relationship there, assist them with that first key milestone in the business and continue supporting them as they build and grow their team and enter that growth stage and scale up as well.”
Majumder also noted that while some of the core team at Qapita were planning to relocate to the U.S., and bring in the “provide continuity and bring in an understanding of the company’s culture and DNA,” there are also plans to recruit local talent.
“Because it is important for any business to be close to the ground, to understand local nuances,” he said.
Drawing on lessons from its operations in India and Singapore but with a clear-eyed view of the challenges ahead, Majumder said:
“So we have a lot of learnings and knowledge. And within our team, we have decades of experience in this industry. So that definitely helps us get initial couple wins in any new market including the U.S. Having said that, I think it’s silly to think that you’ll be able to leverage pre-existing experience without having any practical experience in a new market.”
Since expanding to North America, Qapita has invested time in building local relationships — connecting with customers, law firms, and partners to understand user needs and customize its product accordingly.
When asked how Qapita stacks up against entrenched U.S. players like Carta, Majumder acknowledged the maturity of the market but emphasized the company’s broader approach.
“There are great examples to learn from,” he said. “But we’ve taken a unique path. We support both private and public companies, which is a big challenge, especially in employee equity compensation. The nuances are very different, and we’re proud to be able to serve companies from the early stages through IPO.”
Beyond just providing software, Qapita offers consulting, compliance, and support services.
“We act as an extension of the HR and finance teams,” Majumder said. “From designing global stock plans to handling financial reporting and valuations, we cater to every stakeholder — founders, HR, and finance alike.”
Majumder said Qapita’s goals this year include doubling down on its strengths in each market, expanding partnerships, and enhancing user experience.
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“We’re spending a lot of time with U.S. law firms and paralegals, who tend to be the power users of platforms like ours,” he said. “The focus is on optimizing user journeys and making sure our product resonates with end users.”
Even though it is currently backed by Series A funding and, like many startups, Qapita is always keeping an eye on the right time to raise more capital.
“Fundraising is never straightforward,” Majumder said. “It’s about finding the right partners. Any future round will be about accelerating our mission to help more companies manage equity effectively. Startups are always fundraising in some sense — it’s about seizing the right opportunity.”
In navigating new markets, Majumder emphasized the value of strong investor backing and strategic partnerships.
“Expanding into a new market is hard to do alone. Backing from investors who can help open doors is quite helpful. Getting the right partners, establishing good relationships with other stakeholders, working with other startups [are] some of the key elements.”