Athennian is thrilled to be a part of the 28 new companies to join the Open Cap Table Coalition. For the first time in the private company equity management space, industry leaders from across the entrepreneurial ecosystem are coming together to create this industry group that aims to improve the interoperability, transparency, and portability of startup cap table data.
The coalition strives to pilot interoperability and ease the complexities of startup capitalization management through three company-focused principles:
1. Responsibility
Each member company is responsible for maintenance and updated to capitalization information as a corporate record. Equity holders also are interested in the company’s capitalization information, which may include the right to use information about their specific holdings with other services and technologies for their own purposes. Access to such information is dictated by company by-laws, investment, or other relevant contractual agreements, as well as pertinent laws and regulations.
2. Company Choice
Each company maintains its right to use or transfer capitalization information on or to whichever services and technologies it chooses to work with its capitalization information.
3. Collective Action
Service providers and technology platforms supporting companies and their equity holders should proactively work together to facilitate the portability of capitalization data in order to enable those companies and their equity holders to accurately, effectively, and efficiently exercise these rights.
