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Start-up Equity Dilution Calculator

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Author
  • Harvey John Team Equity
Updated: 12 January, 2024
Featured
  • ESOPs

Number of shares before the funding round
#

Capital to be invested in the round
$

Ownership target where you want to be after the funding round
%
Calculate
Here's your Equity Dilution Breakdown Result:
  • New shares issued: -
  • Total shares after the funding round: -
  • Pre-money valuation: -
  • Post-money valuation: -
  • Price of issued shares: -

You have a grand vision and an idea for a company but are waiting for the right fuel for your business, for which you are in talk in talk with investors. You need to figure out the right balance between shares issued and equity diluted to ensure your stake in ownership. Understanding the numbers is key to maintaining control and setting your venture on the path to success.

What is Equity Dilution with an Example?

Equity dilution in start-ups refers to the decrease in ownership percentage experienced by existing shareholders when new shares are issued. This typically happens during funding rounds, where investors receive shares in exchange for their investment.

It’s like giving a small piece of your pie in exchange for some dough, you can make more pie with the dough and the investors get the pie.

Let's walk through an example to understand it better:

Imagine a start-up with:

  • 100,000 shares outstanding, divided equally between two founders (50,000 shares each).
  • Each founder owns 50% of the company.

The company decides to raise $1 million in a seed funding round: Investors invest $1 million in exchange for 20,000 new shares.

  • After the funding round: The total number of shares outstanding increases to 120,000 (100,000 + 20,000).
  • Each founder still holds 50,000 shares, but their ownership percentage has decreased to 41.67%:
  • (50,000 shares / 120,000 shares) * 100% = 41.67%
  • Therefore, the founders have each experienced an 8.33% dilution in their ownership

Now let’s dive into how to calculate all these necessary values.

Do you want to know how to implement ESOPs in your organization?

Get insights on ESOPs, best practices, Cap table, and Equity Management

How to calculate Equity Dilution?

There are many ways to calculate equity dilution based on the input parameters provided. Let’s discuss one of the ways (which was used in the calculator above too). We’ll touch up upon another way at the end. Before we go into the calculations here are three golden numbers needed:

  • Target Ownership: The percentage of the company you want to hold (as ownership) after the new shares are issued.
  • Current Shares Outstanding: This is the total number of shares already in existence before the funding round.
  • Capital invested: This is the amount of funds you are trying to raise a part of funding.

Other calculations can be extrapolated from these golden numbers.

The number of shares to be issued is calculated based on how much ownership you want to retain, and the change in ownership can be calculated based on the total shares post money and pre-money. Let’s dive into the calculations.

How does the Equity Calculator Work?

Once you input these three data points, you can see the output in the form of:

Output
Definition
Formula for calculation
Number of Shares to be Issued
Number of new shares to be issued for the investor/partner to get the investment
(Target Ownership / (1 - Target Ownership)) * Current Shares Outstanding
Total shares after funding
Total shares after transaction is completed
Outstanding shares + New shares issued
Pre-money valuation
Valuation of the company before completing the funding round
Number of shares issued pre-money x price of issued shares
Post-money valuation
Valuation of the company after completing the funding round
Pre-money valuation + Funding received

This calculator can help you identify the pre and post money valuations and the final shares after the funding round.

Why is understanding Equity dilution important?

Understanding all these values is especially vital for startups and founders for their strategic decision-making to ensure that their ownership lies within the threshold they want and they aren’t losing their key rights. Some other factors include:

  • Ability to negotiate funding terms more effectively
  • Planning the amount of capital required
  • To manage dilution efficiently and communicate transparently
  • Ensuring compliance to regulations and norms
  • Aligning with business goals

Overall, a deep understanding of these financial metrics is vital for effective corporate governance, investor relations, and long-term business success.

Other Parameters to Consider while Dealing with Equity Dilution

This calculator takes into consideration some key parameters like target ownership and capital, but in reality, with a greater number of investors it gets more complicated to maintain them. Therefore, it makes it more essential to have a working, real-time Capitalization table or a Cap table to ensure visibility and transparency at all times.

Still, if you looking for some of the other parameters to maintain in your spreadsheets, then those include:

  • Shifts in valuations
  • Types of shares issued
  • Conversions of convertible notes with warrants, valuation caps, and/or discounts
  • ESOP Pool considerations
  • Need for anti-dilution measures
  • Number of investors etc.

[Template] Calculate your Equity Dilution for free

In case you are looking for an advanced template than the one mentioned above with more rounds and investors you can download the free template for equity dilution here.

Equity Dilution on Vega Equity

Get the overview of the Cap Table and the changes done after each round with ease. View your equity shares by ownership, shares, securities, series, and more.

Equity Dilution on Vega Equity

Reach out to us for a free consultation today!

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