Introduction
Typically, legal entities, such as funds, VCs, and family offices, may have more than one beneficiary per company. In those cases, legal entities might ask you to grant multiple beneficiaries access to the same account.
With an investment firm, you can include multiple stakeholders as one stakeholder in your cap table. All investors have access to the investment firm as collaborators and thus have insight into their stakes in the portfolio company.
In this article, we explain how investors create an investment firm, how to add all investors as collaborators so that all investors have access, how to include the investment firm in a cap table, and how investors have insight into their portfolio companies.
Create a new Investment Firm account
Log into your Ledgy user account.
Click the "Your equity" drop-down > Click on "Add new" in the Investment Firms section.
Enter the needed information and press Create.
You will land in the newly created investment firm. Here, you see an example of what a fully connected Investment Firm account can look like.
Invite collaborators to an Investment Firm account to give access to multiple investors/stakeholders
Click the "Your equity" drop-down > Open your investment firm account.
On the left sidebar, click on Firm Settings > Collaborators.
Add collaborators with the button in the top right corner.
Enter the collaborator Name, Email and Access Role.
Access Roles
You can choose between the following roles:
Viewer: They can view everything but can't change anything.
Admin: Gives them read and write access to the company, but they cannot publish changes or change the billing or access rights for other people.
Owner: Gives them read and write access to the company, can publish changes, change the billing, and access rights for other people.
Connecting a portfolio company with an Investment Firm account
Note:
For a better overview of who has to do which task, an entrepreneur who manages its company account with Ledgy is declared as (A), and investors who want to monitor their stakes in the portfolio company with the help of an investment company are declared as (B).
Scenario 1: The portfolio company founder/account owner sets up the Investment Firm account and invites all collaborators/investors.
How to guide scenario 1.
How to guide scenario 1.
The portfolio company account owner (A) creates a new Investment Firm account for your investors.
Log into your Ledgy user account.
Click the "Your equity" drop-down > Click on "Add new" in the Investment Firms section.
Enter the needed information of the investors and save it.
You will land in the newly created investment firm. Here, you see an example of what a fully connected Investment Firm account can look like.
The portfolio company account owner (A) creates a stakeholder profile for the investor.
The account owner goes to Stakeholders > Clicks on "+ Add" to create a stakeholder profile.
Fill out the stakeholder card with the required information (Name, Email, etc.) and save it. Enter the email of one of the collaborators of the Investment Firm account.
The portfolio company account owner (A) connects the portfolio company with the Investment Firm account.
Click the "Your equity" drop-down > Open your investment firm account > Dashboard > Click on + Add.
Click on Existing company.
The account owner selects their company and chooses the investor's stakeholder profile, created in step 2.
The portfolio company account owner (A) invites all investors as collaborators to the Investment Firm account to give them access to their stakes in the portfolio company.
Click the "Your equity" drop-down > Open your investment firm account.
On the left sidebar, click on Firm Settings > Collaborators.
Add collaborators with the button in the top right corner.
Enter the collaborator Name, Email and Access Role.
Access Roles
You can choose between the following roles:
Viewer: They can view everything but can’t change anything.
Admin: Gives them read and write access to the company, but they cannot publish changes or change the billing or access rights for other people.
Owner: Gives them read and write access to the company, can publish changes, change the billing, and access rights for other people.
When all investors receive an invitation to join the Investment firm account as collaborators and accept the invitation, the investors (B) remove the collaborator seat of the portfolio company account owner. So, the portfolio company account owner can't access the Investment Firm account.
The investor clicks the "Your equity" drop-down > Open the investment firm account > Firm Settings > Collaborators > Revoke access from the portfolio company account owner.
Congratulation! You have just created an Investment Firm account for your investors, added your portfolio company to it, and invited your investors to the Investment Firm account!
Scenario 2: A founder manages their company with Ledgy and invites the investor's Investment Firm to let them see their stakes.
How to guide scenario 2.
How to guide scenario 2.
The portfolio company's account owner (A) goes to Stakeholders > Clicks on + Add to add a new stakeholder profile.
The account owner (A) fills out the stakeholder card with the required information (Name, Email, etc.) and save it. Enter the email of one of the collaborators of the Investment Firm account.
After creating the stakeholder profile, the account owner (A) selects the profile and clicks on the Invite button.
The account owner (A) defines the preferred dashboard "Investor" and clicks the Invite button.
The Investment Firm owner (B) receives an invitation in the email inbox or finds it directly in their user account ("Your equity" drop-down).
The investment firm owner (B) selects to add the portfolio company to the Investment Firm account.
Congratulation! You have just added your portfolio company to your Investment Firm account!
Scenario 3: The investors invite the portfolio company to their Investment Firm account.
How to guide scenario 3.
How to guide scenario 3.
The Investment Firm account owner (B) opens the Dashboard > Clicks on Add.
The Investment Firm account owner (B) clicks on Invite company.
The investment Firm account owner (B) enters the portfolio company's name, the company's representative name, and the portfolio company account owner's email.
The portfolio company account owner (A) receives an email and proceeds, as explained in Scenario 1.
Wait until the Investment Firm owner (B) receives an invitation in the email inbox or finds the invitation request directly in their user account ("Your equity" drop-down > Invitations).
The investment firm owner (B) selects to add the portfolio company to the Investment Firm account.
Congratulation! You have just added your portfolio company to your Investment Firm account!
Scenario 4: The portfolio company founder/account owner already invited an investor as a legal entity. However, the investors want to add more collaborators and haven't created an investment firm yet.
How to guide scenario 4.
How to guide scenario 4.
The investor (B) creates an Investment Firm account to invite other investors as collaborators and manage the stakes in the portfolio company together.
The investor logs into their Ledgy user account.
Click the "Your equity" drop-down > Click on "Add new" in the Investment Firms section.
Enter the needed information and save it.
You will land in the newly created Investment Firm account. Here, you see an example of what a fully connected Investment Firm account can look like.
The investor (B) invites all other investors as collaborators to the Investment Firm account to give them access and manage their combined stakes in the portfolio company.
Click the "Your equity" drop-down > Open your investment firm account.
On the left sidebar, click on Firm Settings > Collaborators.
Add collaborators with the button in the top right corner.
Enter the collaborator Name, Email and Access Role.
Access Roles
You can choose between the following roles:
Viewer: They can view everything but can't change anything.
Admin: Gives them read and write access to the company, but they cannot publish changes or change the billing or access rights for other people.
Owner: Gives them read and write access to the company, can publish changes, change the billing, and access rights for other people.
The portfolio company account owner (A) revokes access to the current investor's stakeholder profile. So, a new connection between the portfolio company and the Investment Firm account can be established.
The account owner goes to Stakeholders > Search the investor's profile and clicks on the Three dots > Revoke access.
The account owner re-invites the investor and the Investment Firm by selecting the stakeholder profile and clicking the Invite button. The email should match one of the Investment Firm collaborator emails!
The account owner defines the preferred dashboard "Investor" and clicks the Invite button.
The Investment Firm account owner (B) receives an invitation in the email inbox or finds it directly in their user account ("Your equity" drop-down > Invitations).
The investment firm owner selects to add the portfolio company to the Investment Firm account.
Congratulation! You have just completed the change of access to the stakes to a portfolio company from a personal account to an investment company account. This means several investors can now monitor their investment in the portfolio company.