Equity Management • ESOP

Build and manage your ESOP on Clara

Create our ESOP and option grant agreements and use our DocuSign integration to collect signatures. Enjoy automatic cap table updates when you manage your ESOP on Clara.
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Granting and managing options is a breeze with Clara.

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ESOP in minutes 

Complete the process digitally in a few clicks, including Board approvals.

Automated vesting schedules 

Every time you issue a grant, the vesting schedule will automatically appear on your cap table with all the math done for you.
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Built-in  exercise notices

You’ll be reminded of upcoming vesting dates and Clara will pre-populate exercise notices – ready to be signed by your team members.
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Easy onboarding

Make ESOP allocation a seamless part of your onboarding process. Generate grants for new team members in a few clicks with everything signed through the platform.

You can’t beat Clara’s ESOP functionality!

You can’t beat Clara’s ESOP functionality. It allows us to grant options to our team in a few clicks while automatically updating our cap table. Truly next level.

– Michael Hunter, Co-Founder and CEO at Holo
Trusted by leading companies, investors and lawyers around the world

An introduction to ESOPs

Clara’s ESOP documents comprise of an option plan, board resolution approving the plan, grant agreements and an FAQ document.

Option plans & grant agreements

The plan sets aside a pool of share options that you can allocate to employees, directors, advisors and consultants. Once your plan is in place, you can issue grant agreements to allocate options from your plan’s pool to team members.  

Attract, incentivize & retain

An ESOP allows you to attract talent, incentivize your team to contribute to your company’s success and retain them through time-based vesting. An ESOP can also be used for consultants and advisors, not just employees.  

Attract and retain talent with Clara’s ESOP management tools

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How to put in place your ESOP

Login

Login into your account (or sign-up, if you don’t have one).

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Generate your option plan

Click the blue (+) button, choose the relevant jurisdiction from the dropdown and select Share Incentive Plan or Equity Incentive Plan for Delaware.

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Complete the form

Complete each field in the form and select your various options, including the pool of shares you want to set aside for your ESOP.

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Adopt the option incentive plan 

Once you generate the plan, you can save it in draft, edit it and when final, send it for signature through our built-in DocuSign integration. It will be signed by way of a board resolution adopting the plan (the actual plan itself is not signed). Clara will take care of all that for you.

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Repeat for grant agreements 

Now that your plan is in place and ESOP pool set aside, you can start issuing options to team members. Just go back to the Generate Documents tab, select Grant Agreement, complete the form and sign it when you’re ready.

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Arrange for exercise notices 

Clara will automatically remind you when an upcoming vesting date is near and pre-populate an exercise notice ready for your team member to sign and send back to you, right on the platform.

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Resources & Insights

Stories, updates and resources

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Webinars
Mar 7, 2024

Managing your cap table – 101 [PAST]

This webinar breaks down the essentials of cap tables, from avoiding common pitfalls to understanding valuations and managing equity with confidence. You’ll also get a hands-on walkthrough of Clara’s platform, giving you practical tools to navigate fundraising and ownership decisions more effectively.

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Clara
Oct 25, 2022

An essential guide to ESOPs

An ESOP is a way for you to set aside a pool of shares in your startup that you can allocate to various team members (e.g. employees, consultants or advisors – that’s right, it’s not just for employees, notwithstanding the name). The ESOP sets out the rules for granting shares.

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Clara
Sep 19, 2022

ADGM SPV – Your essential guide

Setting up a company in ADGM, and specifically a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), is attractive for founders and investors. Founders benefit from the speed and simplicity that ADGM’s fully digitised incorporation process achieves, while investors are attracted by the investment flexibility and legal protections that ADGM’s strong regulatory environment provides.

Binance uses Clara to incorporate and manage ADGM entities. The team at Clara are extremely efficient and go the extra mile to ensure we always have a smooth experience and meet our deadlines. Top-notch service!

Vishal Sacheendran
Head of Strategy and Operations, Binance

Starting a company is hard enough, but managing legal processes shouldn’t be. With Clara’s dedicated accelerator onboarding solution, companies can get the support and infrastructure they need to efficiently and professionally complete their legal due diligence and finalize an investment.

Amal Dokhan
General Partner MENA, 500 Global

Clara is a one-stop shop for everything equity related. All our data is safe and securely stored and accurately recorded. And our investors love having direct access. It has saved us countless hours and kept our cap table mistake free.

Jessica Anuna
CEO & Founder, Klasha

We spend a lot of time educating founders on basic legal concepts: what they need to do for us to invest in them. Clara automates these functions. As Clara’s first institutional investor, we knew intuitively from inception, this company will be a game changer.

Vijay Tirathrai
Managing Director, Techstars

Founders often struggle with managing their legal function due to lack of expertise and resources. And we’ve seen poor legal structures create hurdles to our investing in otherwise healthy startups. Investors like ourselves love that Clara gives founders the tools they need to establish, grow and scale their startups from day one on a best-practice basis.

Shane Shin
Founding Partner, Shorooq

3,000+

Companies incorporated
In ADGM and DIFC.

45+

Countries
Our customers operate from more than 45 different countries.

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Savings on fees
Our customers on average save more than 80% on their annual legal and admin fees.

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