Tips, News and Insights from the Nº1 Equity Management Platform in Europe

We're thrilled to announce that we just raised £1.5 million from London-based VC fund Fuel Ventures and angels to digitise and provide liquidity to the billions of pounds’ worth of employee shares in unlisted European companies. We'd like to thank all of you who have supported us this far, and share with you what our goals are for these exciting next few months for Capdesk. 

If you're reading this, you've probably just put a share split or merge (aka consolidation or subdivision) behind you. Amazing!

Now all you need to do is let Companies House know, by filling out an SH02 form. This would normally take some time, to double check you got all the numbers down right. But with Capdesk, you actually don't need to worry about it: we autofill the form for you every time you make a share adjustment! Here's how. 

Remember the old, cumbersome days of manually trying to do share splits or merges on that usual spreadsheet? The long hours spent sorting out the adjustment of ratios for shares, options, convertible notes, and all sorts of equity - for each of your different share classes! Not to mention the new share certificates you had to issue, or updating your shareholder register, or filling out SH02s for Companies House for that matter.

Well you guessed right, all of this can now be done on Capdesk with a couple of clicks, and only takes a couple of minutes. Thank God for the digital age. 

In the private business world, the reasons for giving equity to employees are more than thoroughly discussed among founders, investors, and managers alike. But how often do you get to hear your employees’ thoughts on those grants you issued them? Are you making the most out of your option pool to incentivise staff, or are you just giving away equity with little or no impact?

We caught up with... let's call him Ben, a current option grant holder, to get an honest account of how an average grant is issued and communicated to employees, and what determines their effect on employee performance and loyalty.

Xtrac is a world-leader in the design and manufacture of high-performance transmission systems and driveline components, supplying virtually all the world's top motorsport teams. Its Employee Benefit Trust, established in 1997 continues to impress today. After winning the ESOP Centre's 2018 'Best All-Employee Share Scheme' award Xtrac's Finance Director, Stephen Lane, talks to Capdesk about why employee share plans matter, what can make or break them, and what the future of employee ownership holds. 

Share plans are one of the most important things a company can do to recruit, retain and motivate its staff. A properly managed share plan can align employees, managers and shareholders to work together to achieve the company’s financial and strategic goals. But – occasionally – they can also go wrong. So what should you think about when setting up a share plan? And what should you avoid to prevent problems?

Great news for all statutory register enthusiasts out there - we've made yours even better on Capdesk! That's right, we just turned your old, lengthy excel export into a majestic PDF document with a sharper look. We also expanded its content to include several recommended documents as well - namely, your register of issuances (allotments), transfers, and reorganisations (adjustments). 

Hooray!

Let's take a look.

At Capdesk, we're serious about cap tables. That's why we've updated our exports to give you even more comprehensive reports on the data you keep on the platform. Get better insight than ever into your shares, and stay on top of who owns what with the new stakeholder category tags.

If you've ever had to give share certificates to shareholders after issuing out shares or completing a funding round, you know what serious hassle means. Manually filling out information on share certificate templates, printing them out, signing them by hand, and then scanning (or even mailing!) them to be sent to the share holder. Not to mention the filing process of paper certificates that keep piling up or getting misplaced... Well, great news is we've made this all ancient history! 

Here at Capdesk we're extremely excited to announce that, for the first time ever, we've made grant issuance entirely digital! The grants are electronically executed as deeds, following legal best practises. This means that it's not only faster and easier for you to execute grants, but that you're also remaining compliant from the start and avoiding potential legal headaches in the future.