Cap Table

How to add a company investor

Need to add an investor that's a company or a fund? Here's how.

Most times your investors and shareholders will be individuals, but sometimes the investor will be a company or a fund, or perhaps an individual wants to invest through a trust or through their company.

So, here's how to add an investor or shareholder that's a company, fund, trust, etc.:

SELECT TO ADD A COMPANY INVESTOR

  • After you've clicked Add Investor you'll get a popup dialog where you enter their details: Select the Company tab.

  • Type the name of the company - and as you do so we'll auto-suggest company names based on UK companies registered with Companies House.

  • If it's a UK company, great, just select it from the suggestions we display.

  • But, if the company is not a UK company or isn't on Companies House (e.g. it's a family trust), then please enter the full name of the company, and select your entry instead of the suggestions from Companies House 

  • Tip: If you see a suggested company at the top of the list with a nice icon, that's us suggesting a company that's already been set up on SeedLegals. So, to avoid creating duplicates (for example, Seedcamp is an investor in many companies on SeedLegals, their profile is already created, no need to create them again), if you do see an existing company, select that instead of creating a duplicate.

ADD THE INVESTMENT, AS NORMAL

  • Now add the investment for that company, just as if it was an individual investor.

  • Tip: Companies (other than specially-created Nominee companies) won't qualify for SEIS or EIS, so if you're making this change because an investor asked to do their investment to a company, so if that's the case remember to change to change their investment to Standard, and let them know that.

YOU'LL NOW FIND THE COMPANY ADDED TO YOUR PORTFOLIO

  • Open the company drop down list (i.e. click on your company name on the top of the left menu) 

  • You'll see that new company you just created added to your portfolio. And, yes, you're thinking, hang on, why is it there...?

  • The reason we added it to your portfolio is so you can:
    a) complete the address details
    b) add the signatories for the company
    c) and then remove yourself
    Here's how to do that:

ENTER THE COMPANY ADDRESS DETAILS

  • Select the company in your portfolio and go to the Settings page for it.

  • If it's a UK company, we'll already have auto-filled the address details for you.

  • But, if the company is not a UK company or isn't on Companies House (e.g. it's a family trust), then please enter the full name of the company, and select your entry instead of the suggestions from Companies House.

  • Filling in the address details is important as they are displayed in the Term Sheet, Shareholders Agreement and share certificate, and much better for you to do this than troubling your investors with it later.

  • Tip: If it's not a UK company, remember to select the Country when setting the address (the default is United Kingdom).

  • Tip: We suggest entering the company name without adding "Limited", then in the Company Type box select Limited / Ltd / LLC / etc.

  • Tip: If the company name has, say, Sarl, Pty Ltd or other country-specific suffix that's not in our list of available company types, then select Other as the Company Type, and then just add the suffix as part of the company name.

ENTER THE SIGNATORY DETAILS

  • Next, go to Users & Roles for that company (the next tab in the Company Details section), and add the email address and name of whoever will be signing for that company.

  • Set that person (or those people) as Admins + Signatory + Director so that they will be able to sign your Term Sheet and other deal docs (or NDA, consulting agreement, etc.) on behalf of the company.

REMOVE YOURSELF FROM THE COMPANY

  • When you're ready, go back to Users & Roles and click the 3-dot menu to the right of your name, then select Delete User

  • This removes you from that company, and removes that company from your portfolio page.

You've now successfully created a new company on SeedLegals, set it up and then handed it over to the owners, ready for them to log in and sign your documents on behalf of that company. Nice!

SHARE YOUR DOCUMENTS WITH THE COMPANY

  • Lastly, when you're ready to share your Term Sheet, Shareholders Agreement, NDA or other document with that company, just go to that document, click Share to View and Sign, and then share it with all the people in that company as appropriate, and send them an invite.