We offer two sets of financing documents that you can utilize for an automated financing on our platform—the National Venture Capital Association Model Documents (NVCA) and Series Seed.
The use of standardized financing document templates saves time and expense when all parties agree to the approach. Both sets of documents were developed to help:
- Reflect current practices
- Be fair and unbiased toward both the entrepreneur and the investor
- Offer flexibility on commonly negotiated terms
- Enforce internal consistency across the document set
- Offer transparency and create predictability from one transaction to the next
- Reduce the time required for a financing
Which set is right for me?
You'll want to be in close consultation with your attorney throughout the equity financing process, as they are best suited to advise you on what's appropriate for your company and your planned investment. Your investor will likely have a preference for one set or the other, and this will often be designated in your Term Sheet.
Generally speaking, the NVCA document set is suitable for a full round of institutional venture financing (e.g. larger seed financings, and/or Series A and beyond). The Series Seed documents are a shorter and simpler set for when the full set of financing documents may be overkill. They keep the essential transaction terms, but postpone other terms until a later fundraising round when a more robust document set is warranted.
What documents are included?
When you use the platform to automate your equity financing and select NVCA, the workflow will generate and manage the execution of the following documents:
- Stock Purchase Agreement
- Investor Rights Agreement
- Voting Agreement
- Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation
- Right of First Refusal and Co-Sale Agreement
- Disclosure Schedules
- Indemnification Agreement(s) (optional)
- Stock Certificates
In comparison, when you use the platform to automate your equity financing and select Series Seed, the workflow will generate and manage the execution of these documents:
- Stock Purchase Agreement
- Disclosure Schedules
- Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation
- Indemnification Agreement(s) (optional)
- Stock Certificates
How do I learn more about these document templates?
Visit the following sites to learn more about the document sets our templates are based on:
NVCA – The National Venture Capital Association supports innovative entrepreneurship through funding, advocacy, and services. Their model documents provide a starting point intended to reduce the amount of iteration required to develop financing documents for each transaction.
Series Seed – The Series Seed document templates were authored and are maintained by Ted Wang, a former partner at Fenwick & West, now with Cowboy Ventures. He developed the Series Seed documents with the goal of avoiding unnecessary time and cost for seed financing transactions.
Additional Resources:
Equity Financing: Structure Your Next Round
Fidelity does not provide legal or tax advice.
Third parties mentioned and Fidelity are not affiliated.
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