Tender Offer
A company-organized process letting many shareholders sell a portion of their shares to a buyer at the same time.
A tender offer is a structured, company-facilitated secondary sale in which a buyer (often a growth-stage investor or the company itself buying back stock) offers to purchase shares from a defined group of eligible shareholders — usually employees and early investors — at a set price, within a set window. It's a way to give many people liquidity in an organized process rather than negotiating individual secondary deals one at a time.
Tender offers are commonly used by later-stage, well-capitalized private companies staying private longer than they historically would have, giving employees a path to some liquidity from vested equity without waiting for an eventual IPO or acquisition.
A company at a $2B valuation runs a tender offer letting employees sell up to 20% of their vested shares to a growth investor at the company's most recent round price, capped at a total pool of $50M across all participants.
Design tender offer eligibility and caps thoughtfully — a poorly structured tender that only benefits senior employees or founders can create real morale problems, while one open too broadly can drain more liquidity than the company or buyer actually wants to provide.
Who typically funds a tender offer?
Usually a growth-stage or crossover investor looking to build a position in the company, sometimes alongside the company itself buying back a portion of shares — the specific structure varies deal by deal.
Related terms
Run the numbers yourself: dilution, SAFE conversion, and fund-returner calculators.