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

Got offered a grant by your employer company but not sure how it works? We've got you. Capdesk explains stock vesting, how vesting schedules work, when you can exercise your options, and more - in simple terms as usual!

The Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) and Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) are two of the UK government’s most generous - and hence most popular - initiatives to encourage investors to fund early stage businesses. Considering that - in theory at least - newer companies present a higher investment risk, many a founder have applied for one or both of these schemes, hoping to attract investors. 

Beginning September 14th, 2019, your bank may require additional authentication of your credit card when making payments on Capdesk. This extra security check by various banks has been introduced to comply with an EU payments regulation requiring banks to sometimes perform customer transaction authentication through identity verification. 

A common question among EIS/SEIS beginners, as all the relevant paperwork can get hard to keep up with! Capdesk comes to the rescue once again, with an easy-to-digest account of everything you need to know before you submit your application. Let's dive in. 

EIS is a great way for early stage businesses to attract potential investors and accelerate their growth. Unfortunately, it involves quite a bit of paperwork, served with a generous side of EIS terminology! But worry not - this guide was specifically designed to give you a good overview of what you need to know about the scheme, without getting lost in all the mumbo-jumbo! Let’s take a look.

With almost £2Bn pounds invested in UK startups through EIS last year, it’s clear that EIS can be a goldmine of a scheme for early-stage startups. Unfortunately, it comes along with quite a bit of paperwork. But, as you know, we’re all about the paperless life here at Capdesk, so we’re bringing you one step closer to it by letting you store EIS documents on Capdesk for your investors to stay informed about your application status, and making EIS3 signing and distribution digital to save you tons of admin time. Let’s put a smile on your investors’ faces!

We take your data privacy seriously. That's why we've now built an optional two-factor authentication feature on Capdesk, for those of you who want to be extra sure that no one else can access your account. Two-factor authentication can be enabled on an individual level by you, the user, or set as a requirement by the company for all the users it invites on the platform. It's a simple as 1-2-3. Just make sure you've got your phone nearby! 

You know we always try to make equity life as easy as possible for you - that's why we're giving you the option to export an overview of all the information relating to each type of security you might be using. So whether you want to share an overview of your options, warrants, phantom shares, or growth shares with an external party you don't wish to invite on Capdesk, all you need to do is use a coupe of clicks to export your data in spreadsheet form! 

We have big news! Capdesk is partnering with payment experts Shieldpay, to make digital option exercises possible! Upon termination of employment, your employees can choose if and how many of their vested options they would like to exercise through Capdesk. Shieldpay will ensure the transaction is safe for both you and your employee, by retaining the transfer money in an escrow account until the transaction process is completed and fully verified on Capdesk.

If you're one of the many companies who grant options to employees over issued shares, we have good news for you. You can now do so on Capdesk, with just a few clicks. It just got easier than ever to issue and monitor your grants!