Cap Table & Equity Dilution Calculator
See how each funding round and ESOP top-up dilutes founder ownership. Add as many rounds as you like — investor and ESOP percentages are taken on the post-money company.
| After | Founders | Investors | ESOP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Incorporation | 100% | 0% | 0% |
| Seed | 75% | 15% | 10% |
| Series A | 56.3% | 31.3% | 12.5% |
Estimates only — not financial, tax or legal advice. Figures vary by state, capital and individual circumstances.
Talk to a funding and grants expert about minimising dilution and finding non-dilutive capital.
Every grant you win is funding you don't dilute for. Browse equity-free grants for Indian startups.
How to use this calculator
Add each funding round and the calculator tracks founder ownership through all of them.
- 1Name each round. Seed, Series A, and so on — add as many as you need.
- 2Enter the new investor stake. The percentage of the post-money company the new investors take that round.
- 3Add any new ESOP. The fresh ESOP pool created that round, as a percentage of the post-money company.
- 4Read founder ownership. The headline shows your remaining ownership; the table shows the split after every round.
What is a cap table?
A capitalisation table (cap table) is the record of who owns what in your company — founders, investors and the employee option pool. Every time you raise money or grant options, the cap table changes. Modelling it before you raise tells you how much of your company you'll actually keep.
What is equity dilution?
Dilution is the reduction in your ownership percentage when new shares are issued. Your number of shares doesn't fall — the total number grows, so your slice of the whole shrinks. Two things dilute founders: selling equity to investors, and creating or topping up an ESOP pool.
- Pre-money vs post-money
- Pre-money is the company's value before the new investment; post-money is pre-money plus the money raised. An investor putting in 20% of the post-money company owns 20% after the round.
- ESOP pool
- Shares set aside for employees. Creating or expanding it issues new shares, which dilutes existing holders — usually the founders.
How dilution works across rounds
Each round, the new investor stake and any fresh ESOP are taken as a share of the post-money company, so every existing holder is scaled down by the same factor. Across several rounds the effect compounds.
Founder % after a round = Founder % before × (1 − new investor % − new ESOP %)
Founders start at 100% and raise twice:
- Seed — investors 15%, ESOP 10%
- founders → 75%
- Series A — investors 20%, ESOP 5%
- 75% × 0.75
After both rounds founders hold 75% × 75% = 56.25%, with investors and the ESOP pool making up the rest.
How much equity should founders keep?
There's no fixed rule, but a common rule of thumb is to give up roughly 10–20% per priced round. After seed and Series A, many founding teams collectively hold somewhere around 40–60%, depending on round sizes and ESOP top-ups. The point isn't to avoid dilution — it's to make sure each round buys enough progress to justify the equity it costs.
How to keep more of your company
- Raise what you need, not the most you can — every extra rupee of equity funding costs ownership.
- Raise at a higher valuation by hitting milestones first, so the same money costs less equity.
- Negotiate when the ESOP pool is topped up — pools created pre-money dilute founders alone.
- Use non-dilutive funding — government grants and subsidies are money you never give up equity for.
Grants are the only funding on that list that costs zero ownership. Every grant you win is runway you didn't dilute for — see which ones you qualify for from this page.
Common mistakes
- Forgetting the ESOP pool — it dilutes founders just like investor shares do.
- Agreeing to a large pre-money ESOP top-up without realising it comes entirely out of the founders' stake.
- Over-raising early, then being heavily diluted before the company is worth much.
- Modelling only the next round instead of the full path to exit, where dilution compounds.