Carta has taken a big step into the legal side of private markets by launching Carta Law. This new arm was created after acquiring Avantia, a UK-based law firm that uses AI to handle legal work for asset managers. The move is part of Carta’s plan to build a single platform that manages everything in private equity and venture capital — from dealmaking to legal and compliance work.

How the Acquisition Fits into Carta’s Bigger Strategy

Since October 2025, Carta has bought four companies aimed at filling different parts of the private capital workflow. These include Accelex, Sirvatus, and ListAlpha. Each acquisition adds a new layer to what Carta offers, turning it into a comprehensive enterprise operating system for private markets. CEO Henry Ward explained that big private equity firms shouldn’t have to pay high fees to outside law firms for routine legal tasks. Instead, Carta wants to handle this work in-house with AI and legal experts working together.

The goal is to replace traditional legal service models with a connected platform that handles fund operations, investor relations, and now legal processes. This approach promises faster, AI-driven legal work with transparent, outcome-based pricing. It also reduces reliance on external counsel and streamlines processes like fund formation, subscription agreements, and compliance checks.

What Avantia Brings to the Table

Avantia, founded in 2019 by former solicitor James Sutton, operates under UK law as an alternative business structure. This means it combines licensed lawyers with technology workflows, something traditional law firms can’t do. Avantia’s AI platform, Ava, automates high-volume legal tasks like contracts, compliance, and regulatory filings. It then passes the work to human lawyers for review, making legal processes more efficient and scalable.

Avantia’s clients include over 200 global asset managers, with a significant portion of the world’s largest funds managing over $15 trillion in assets. Its AI system is designed to process complex legal work quickly and accurately, integrating seamlessly with fund operations. By acquiring Avantia, Carta gains a regulated legal entity that can deliver legal services directly within its platform, connecting legal workflows to fund data like cap tables and investor records.

This integration aims to make routine legal work faster, cheaper, and more connected. For example, a subscription agreement reviewed by Ava can flow directly into the same system managing investor capital accounts. Similarly, KYC checks and compliance updates happen automatically across the platform, reducing manual effort and potential errors.

Risks and Challenges of the New Approach

While this move is innovative, it also comes with risks. In early 2024, Carta faced a trust issue when a sales employee used confidential cap-table data to solicit secondary share sales without permission. That incident led the company to exit the secondary trading business to protect client data. Now, with Carta Law handling sensitive legal and compliance information, the stakes are even higher.

Legal and compliance workflows involve highly sensitive data like investor identities, contractual terms, and regulatory disclosures. Ensuring this data remains secure and trustworthy is critical. While AI can streamline processes, it must be backed by robust safeguards and legal oversight to prevent misuse or breaches.

Overall, Carta’s strategy reflects a bold vision: to become the core operating system for private capital, with its own regulated legal services embedded within. If successful, this could reshape how private market firms manage legal work, reducing costs and increasing efficiency. But it also requires careful handling of data security and regulatory compliance to maintain trust in this innovative approach.

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