Share of founders who never receive personal liquidity from their startup. A decade or more paper rich, cash poor.
Don't get carried away. Get carried forward.
Aclarys is the Fund of Founders. Pooled credit, not pooled equity. No ownership transfer.
Median Series B founder ownership is 21.8%. By Series D it is 10.4%. Median time from Seed to Series D is 8 years. By that point the employees you hired hold more of the company than you do.
| Round | Founders | Employee pool | New investors | Prior investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seed | 54.8% | 12.1% | 20.6% | 12.5% |
| Series A | 35.6% | 14.4% | 20.0% | 30.0% |
| Series B | 21.8% | 15.6% | 16.5% | 46.1% |
| Series C | 16.1% | 16.8% | 12.6% | 54.5% |
| Series D | 10.4% | 18.2% | 10.2% | 61.2% |
By Series C, the median employee option pool overtakes the founder's stake – and the gap widens by Series D.
Pooled tokenised credit, issued against unrealised founder equity. Settles through regulated infrastructure. Clears institutional credit diligence on its own terms.
A defined share of future exit proceeds, or a fixed coupon on the amount advanced. Founder's choice.
Borrow against your equity – no sale, no share transfer, no cap-table change. Tax deferred to exit, subject to your jurisdiction and counsel.
10+ founders per pool. Methodology auditable and repeatable per portfolio company.
Issued on regulated rails. Diversified by stage, sector, and exit horizon.
Accredited and DeFi-native demand leads pool 1. The senior, institutional tranche opens as the pool grows.
Three steps on the founder side. Founders contract with the SPV. The SPV pools across founders and distributes to buyers separately. The two sides never meet.
Each pool is curated for stage, sector, and exit horizon. Composition locked at issuance.
Pools diversify for buyers, not against founders.
One-time election at signing. Priced transparently at origination. Settles at the liquidity event.
Founder choice. Both legs priced at origination.
Founder identities stay private throughout. The stake on the cap table is untouched.
Cash against a pledge of future proceeds, not in exchange for shares.
Pricing is methodology-led. Each company in the pool is modelled on its own cap table, peer set, and exit-horizon distribution.
Your advance isn't shares times a discount. We run your company through the full model – every lens, shown to you openly – and walk you through it. Share your cap table and business plan under NDA for a confidential chat.
Indicative only. Pool 1 goes live later in 2026 – nothing is binding until then.
Aclarys originates the pool. Founders supply the underlying. Institutional buyers take the senior tranche. The junior tranche is where the bridge thesis becomes a product.
Founders of venture-backed private companies, Series A or later, with material personal equity exposure and no near-term liquidity event. Founders contract with the SPV, not with buyers.
Identity stays private through origination, issuance, and reporting.
Family offices, niche-asset private credit funds, and insurance balance sheets seeking yield against a non-correlated underlying.
First claim on aggregate pool cashflows.
Underwritten on credit-fund terms.
Where Aclarys bridges to DeFi-native distribution. Operators, post-exit founders, and accredited investors take residual claim on pool cashflows with equity-shaped exposure.
Leads pool 1, distributed through regulated venues as the rails come online.
First-pool conversations are running through summer 2026. Founders, credit allocators, accredited investors, or anyone with a clear reason to be on this list – tell us in a sentence.
Indicative figures available in conversation under NDA after sign-up.
By joining you agree to us storing your details to send you updates about Aclarys. We will never share your data with third parties. You can unsubscribe at any time by emailing denis@aclarys.com.