Introducing cap tables

Today we added cap tables to our data platform. I wanted to share a few words on why this matters and what impact we expect this to have.

Understanding shareholders of companies is nothing new in the data world - it's a critical part of building trust and doing business. This has been the case for hundreds of years. However, it's still a data point that remains underused and undervalued across industries. It's worth spending some time re-iterating why cap tables matter.

Let's start with funds - namely Private Equity and Venture Capital. Every day, private market investors spend time researching companies with uninvestable capital structures. Perhaps an earlier investor has taken too high a percentage, or the valuation is too high to be attractive. It may even be the case that it's simply outside of their mandate. Fast review of existing cap tables saves investors time, as well as helping with their due diligence. Even better if it's presented in a nice way.

Secondly, lenders. Lending is a highly regulated space for a reason, with large fines ready to be levied for Banks that fall foul of sanctions, regulation or even lending mandates. Understanding ultimate beneficial owners (UBOs), is a critical part of this. Fast cap tables at the start of this business development process saves everyone time - before it gets to compliance teams.

Last but not least, founders. Raising capital is difficult at the best of times, but understanding who has the appetite to invest in your sector is key. By understanding who sits on the cap table of similar companies (perhaps not competitors), founders can reach out to highly relevant angel investors, saving hours of painful hard work.

Cap tables are vital - it's a small, but important piece in our puzzle on improving the visibility of company data and presenting it in a way that unlocks economic growth.

Scribe is a data platform for company information, powered by research-based AI. We help Banks and Private Equity to uncover deep insights about private companies and end data entry from PDFs. Welcome to the future of company knowledge.