UK #1 for funding rounds

A funding round is when a company raises money from one or more investors. Typically a startup receives investment in exchange for equity in the company.
Startup funding is organised into different rounds according to the startup’s stage of development. Each investment stage usually only gives the startup enough capital to get to the next stage.
This works for investors, because they can put in a smaller amount of money and wait to see whether their investment leads to the growth they expected before investing again. It’s a way to limit the investor’s risk.
For startups, raising in rounds means they can put the investment amount towards achieving specific goals and then raise again at a higher valuation.

Broadly speaking, the distinct funding rounds in the life of a startup are:
Pre-seed or Bootstrap
This is the very first stage of funding, and usually the investors are the founders themselves, or friends and family of the founders. The pre-seed funding gives the startup just enough to get basic operations off the ground.
Seed
This is the first funding stage in which the startup seeks a formal investment from an external investor, such as an angel investor or a venture capital fund that specialises in early-stage startups.
The money raised during a seed round is often used to conduct market research, make key hires, build a minimum viable product (MVP) and test their product to prove product market fit.
Series A
Series A funding comes in when a startup can show traction in the market and that it is ready to scale. Companies typically use Series A funding to grow the team and continue developing the product and business.
Series B, C and beyond
If the company needs to raise funding to continue to grow, the next rounds are called Series B, C, D and so on.

The fastest a company has closed a funding round on SeedLegals is nine days. But even for us, that’s fast! How long a funding round takes depends on many factors, including the complexity of the deal terms and personalities of the investors and founders involved.
From negotiating the Term Sheet to completing due diligence, gathering signatures and waiting for funds, the average funding round closed outside SeedLegals takes three to six months.
At SeedLegals, we’re focused on helping you close your round quickly and efficiently. We think six weeks is a realistic time-frame to complete your round.
With SeedLegals, instead of working to an expensive lawyer’s schedule, you get immediate access to expertly written and reviewed documents based on BVCA model documents. You create the documents you need - with the support of your dedicated investment specialist - and cut out the middleman.
Plus, we’ve pioneered the idea of agile funding. On SeedLegals, you can raise before a round with SeedFAST advanced subscription agreements and SeedNOTE convertible loan notes and top up after with Instant Investment. These are quick ways of getting funds into your account without going through all the steps of a traditional funding round.

The main funding documents you’ll need for your funding round are:

• Term Sheet
• Shareholders Agreement
  
• Articles of Association
  
• Disclosure Letter
• Previous Investor Notice
• Preemption Notice
• Board Resolution
• Shareholders Resolution
• SH01 Form

With SeedLegals, you can generate all these documents instantly and they update automatically whenever you make any changes to your terms - everything from Investor Consent and Founder Vesting, to Growth Shares.
When you’re ready to complete your round, all parties sign online and your documents are stored securely on SeedLegals.
For a complete list of everything you need and how SeedLegals can help, see our guide to closing your round on SeedLegals.

Yes, every time you do a funding round, you will need the approval of your board of directors and your existing shareholders.
The documents you need to do this are:

• Board Resolution
• Shareholders Resolution
  

When you do your funding round on SeedLegals, we’ll let you know exactly what documents you need and when you need to sign and share them.

After you have negotiated the terms, got signatures and received the funds, your round isn’t officially closed until you’ve issued the share certificates and sent Companies House the documents it needs.
You’ll need to send Companies House your Articles of Association, your Shareholders Resolution and the SH01 form to confirm that you have issued new shares in your company.
At the end of your round, our team do a final check to make sure every document is aligned and accurate. With SeedLegals, you can be confident that what you’re submitting to Companies House is correct.