Who owns Notion? Ownership structure explained (2026)

Notion has become one of the defining productivity tools of the 2020s. What started as a small workspace app has grown into an all-in-one platform used by millions of individuals and teams — from solo freelancers to Fortune 500 companies — to manage notes, projects, wikis, and databases in a single interface.

With annual recurring revenue reportedly surpassing $600 million and a valuation that has climbed to $11 billion, Notion sits at the intersection of several high-stakes trends: the rise of AI-powered productivity, the consolidation of workplace tools, and the growing influence of sovereign wealth funds in Silicon Valley.

So who actually owns Notion? The answer matters because ownership shapes product direction, pricing decisions, data governance, and whether the company ultimately goes public. This article breaks down Notion's ownership structure, traces its funding history, identifies the key people in control, and explains what it all means for the company's future.

Notion was founded in 2013 by Ivan Zhao, Simon Last, Chris Prucha, Jessica Lam, and Toby Schachman. The company is incorporated in the United States and headquartered in San Francisco, California.

The product is a modular workspace that combines documents, databases, project management, and knowledge bases into a single platform. Users can build custom workflows without code, which has made Notion popular with startups, product teams, and operations-heavy organizations. The platform competes with tools like Confluence, Asana, Coda, and increasingly, Microsoft's Loop and Google's NotebookLM.

Notion's early years were rocky. The founding team nearly ran out of money, and Zhao led a significant product rebuild in 2015 that transformed the tool into the flexible workspace it is today. Akshay Kothari, who initially invested as an angel investor, joined the company in 2018 and was later granted co-founder status. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer (COO).

The company's ARR has reportedly grown past $600 million, and its latest confirmed valuation stands at $11 billion following a January 2026 secondary tender offer.

Notion is a privately held company. Its shares do not trade on any public exchange. Ownership is distributed among founders, employees, and a small group of venture capital and institutional investors.

Ivan Zhao, CEO and co-founder, holds an estimated ~30% economic ownership of the company. At the $11 billion valuation, that stake is worth roughly $3.3 billion on paper.

Equity stakes for the other co-founders — Simon Last, Chris Prucha, Jessica Lam, and Toby Schachman — are not publicly disclosed. Prucha, Lam, and Schachman have all departed the company. Last remains active in product and engineering leadership. Akshay Kothari's equity stake as COO and co-founder is also undisclosed.

Notion has raised capital across several rounds, with a small and concentrated investor base:

Note: The October 2021 round is referred to as Series C by some sources and Series D by others. The discrepancy has not been officially resolved by the company.

Index Ventures is the most consistent backer, having led or participated in every major round from Series A onward. Sequoia Capital and Coatue Management entered at the $10 billion valuation in 2021 and have remained involved. Salesforce Ventures also participated in earlier funding rounds.

The most recent ownership event was a $270 million secondary tender offer completed in January 2026. This transaction did not raise new capital for the company. Instead, it allowed employees and early investors to sell existing shares to new and returning buyers.

GIC, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, joined as a new major investor through this tender. Sequoia Capital and Index Ventures also participated as buyers. The transaction valued Notion at $11 billion — slightly below the $12 billion figure Bloomberg initially reported during early negotiations in December 2025.

Secondary tenders like this serve a specific purpose: they provide liquidity to shareholders without diluting existing ownership through new share issuance. For employees holding equity, it's a way to convert paper wealth into cash. For the company, it signals confidence in valuation and can help retain talent.

Notion has raised approximately $613 million in total across all known rounds, including the secondary tender. For a company generating over $600 million in ARR, this is a relatively capital-efficient profile — the company has not needed to raise aggressively to fund operations.

Understanding who owns Notion requires separating economic ownership from operational control. In a private company, these often overlap — but not always.

Ivan Zhao has served as CEO since founding the company in 2013. He led the critical 2015 product rebuild that transformed Notion from a struggling startup into the workspace platform it is today. With an estimated ~30% stake, Zhao is both the largest known individual shareholder and the primary decision-maker.

His dual role as founder-CEO with significant equity gives him substantial influence over company direction, product strategy, and any future IPO or acquisition decisions.

Akshay Kothari serves as COO and co-founder. He initially came in as an angel investor in 2018 before taking on an operational role. His equity stake is not publicly known, but his co-founder designation and C-suite position suggest meaningful ownership.

The identity of Notion's board chair is not publicly disclosed. Given the investor base, it is likely that representatives from Index Ventures and Sequoia Capital hold board seats — standard practice for lead investors in rounds of this size. However, specific board composition has not been confirmed.

No public information confirms whether any single entity beyond Ivan Zhao holds more than 10% voting power. It is also unknown whether Notion uses a dual-class share structure, which would allow founders to retain outsized voting control relative to their economic stake. Many high-profile tech companies adopt such structures ahead of an IPO.

Notion's ownership story tracks closely with its product evolution — from a near-death experience in its early years to one of the most valuable private productivity companies in the world.

The valuation trajectory is striking. Notion went from $800 million to $11 billion in under seven years — a ~14x increase — driven by explosive user growth during the remote work era and steady ARR expansion past $600 million.

The gap between the rumored $12 billion and final $11 billion clearing price in the January 2026 tender is worth noting. Secondary markets can be volatile for private shares, and the final price reflects what buyers were actually willing to pay, not what sellers hoped for.

No significant governance or regulatory issues have been identified around Notion's ownership structure. However, one development is worth flagging.

GIC, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, became a major investor in the January 2026 tender offer. While sovereign wealth fund investments in U.S. technology companies are common — GIC holds positions in dozens of American firms — significant foreign sovereign investment can occasionally attract review from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). There is no indication that Notion's transaction has triggered or is under such review, but it's a dynamic worth monitoring, particularly if Notion pursues an IPO or handles sensitive enterprise data.

Notion's ownership structure has direct implications for its users, competitors, and potential investors.

Product direction: With Ivan Zhao holding ~30% and maintaining CEO control, Notion's product strategy remains founder-driven. This typically means longer-term thinking and less pressure to optimize for short-term revenue extraction — but it also concentrates risk in one person's vision.

IPO trajectory: The January 2026 tender offer, combined with ARR growth past $600 million, signals that Notion is building toward a public listing. Multiple analyst reports point to a potential IPO by late 2026. If that happens, ownership will shift significantly as institutional investors and public shareholders enter the picture.

Data and privacy: As Notion stores sensitive workplace data for millions of teams, the identity and motivations of its owners matter. The entry of a sovereign wealth fund like GIC, while standard, adds a layer of scrutiny that enterprise buyers may consider.

Competitive positioning: Notion's concentrated, capital-efficient ownership gives it flexibility to invest in AI features and enterprise expansion without the quarterly earnings pressure that public competitors like Atlassian and Microsoft face.

Ivan Zhao is the CEO of Notion. He co-founded the company in 2013 and has led it since inception. He holds an estimated ~30% economic ownership stake, making him the largest known individual shareholder.

No. Notion is a privately held company as of 2026. Its shares do not trade on any public stock exchange. However, multiple reports indicate the company is preparing for a potential IPO by late 2026.

Notion was founded in 2013 by Ivan Zhao, Simon Last, Chris Prucha, Jessica Lam, and Toby Schachman. Akshay Kothari, who joined in 2018 initially as an angel investor, was later granted co-founder status and currently serves as COO.

The largest known individual shareholder is CEO Ivan Zhao with an estimated ~30% stake. Key institutional investors include Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Coatue Management, and GIC (Singapore's sovereign wealth fund). Exact institutional ownership percentages are not publicly disclosed.

Notion's most recent confirmed valuation is $11 billion, established during a $270 million secondary tender offer completed in January 2026. The company's ARR has reportedly surpassed $600 million.

Multiple financial analyst and venture capital reports from late 2025 and early 2026 suggest Notion is actively preparing for a potential IPO by late 2026. The January 2026 secondary tender offer — which provided liquidity to employees and early investors — is a common pre-IPO step. No official filing or timeline has been confirmed by the company.