Cap Table & Equity arenaCap Table & Equity
Cap table and equity management platforms — the ownership ledger of a startup — judged on maintaining the capitalization table as a live single source of truth (share classes, certificates, SAFEs and convertibles, option grants), issuing options with board approvals and 409A-compliant strike prices, in-platform valuations (US 409A, UK HMRC/EMI), compliance filings (Rule 701, Form 3921, ASC 718), employee equity portals and online exercising, round scenario modeling and exit waterfalls, and the AI-era heart of the arena: whether a founder — or their agent — can actually get at their own ownership data programmatically. Carta anchors with an OAuth developer platform and a documented remote MCP server; Ledgy ships a public GraphQL API; most of the rest keep equity data behind the login wall, and that gap is exactly what this arena scores. Market reality, modeled honestly: AngelList’s cap-table product closed to new customers in August 2026 and LTSE Equity completed its sunset (customers migrated to Astrella), so neither is ranked here. Vestd (UK) and Ledgy (EU) carry the international end; 409A-only valuation shops and public-company stock-plan administrators are out of scope.
56 user stories · 336 judged cells · updated 2026-09-16 · Evidence as of 2026-09-16
Leaderboard — every product ranked by evidenceLeaderboard
Rank by
| 1 |  Cartafree-tier vs Cake Equity ↗ | 36/100 | 24/100 | 18/100 | 17/100 | 6/100 | 9/24 verified · 3 disputed | 14/100 integrity | |||
| 2 |  Cake Equityfree-tier vs Carta ↗ | 22/100 | 24/100 | 0/100 | 0/100 | 7/100 | 4/22 verified | 0/100 integrity | |||
| 3 |  Ledgyfree-tier vs Carta ↗ | 12/100 | 0/100 | 0/100 | 0/100 | 8/100 | 5/18 verified | 25/100 integrity | |||
| 4 |  Pulleyfree-tier vs Carta ↗ | 6/100 | untested | 0/100 | 14/100 | 0/100 | 1/15 verified | 0/100 integrity | |||
| 5 |  Vestdsubscription-flat vs Carta ↗ | 9/100 | untested | 0/100 | 0/100 | 7/100 | 3/17 verified | 0/100 integrity | |||
| 6 |  Fidelity Private Sharesfree-tier vs Carta ↗ | 0/100 | 0/100 | 0/100 | 8/100 | 7/100 | 1/23 verified | 0/100 integrity |
Best by user type — persona-weighted winnersBest by user type
Per persona, the product with the highest persona-weighted coverage over just that persona's stories — not the same ranking as the overall PA Score leaderboard above.
Best for founder
Fidelity Private Shares
55/100
Runner-up: Cake Equity (49/100)
8 founder stories scored
Story matrix — every product × every judged storyStory matrix
56/56 stories shown · legend
Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productAgenticness
Agent access
| Story | Persona | Carta | Pulley | Cake Equity | Fidelity Private Shares | Ledgy | Vestd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productPoint an agent at llms.txt or agent-oriented docs | ai-native | none 0/10 | partialT 6/10 | fullT 9/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | fullT 7/10 |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productRun the product headlessly / in CI for automation | ai-native | partialT 4/10 | n/a | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | partialT 5/10 | n/a |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productPlug MCP servers into this product so it can use their tools | ai-native | n/a | n/a | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | n/a | none 0/10 |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productConnect an agent via an official MCP server | ai-native | fullT 7/10 | none 0/10 | fullC 8/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productUse an official CLI | ai-native | none 0/10 | n/a | n/a | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | n/a |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productDrive the product through a documented public API | ai-native | fullT 8/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | partialT 5/10 | none 0/10 |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productIssue scoped/least-privilege API credentials for an agent | ai-native | partialC 6/10 | n/a | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 6/10 | n/a |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productBuild against official SDKs | ai-native | partialT 6/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productSubscribe to events via webhooks | ai-native | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
Agentic features
| Story | Persona | Carta | Pulley | Cake Equity | Fidelity Private Shares | Ledgy | Vestd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productGet AI-generated insights and suggestions from my data inside the product | ai-native | partialT 6/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 6/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productSet up automations that run autonomously in the background | ai-native | none 0/10 | n/a | none 0/10 | n/a | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productDelegate tasks to a built-in AI assistant inside the product | ai-native | n/a | n/a | partialC 4/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | n/a |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productOperate the product with natural-language commands | ai-native | partialT 6/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 6/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
Api quality
| Story | Persona | Carta | Pulley | Cake Equity | Fidelity Private Shares | Ledgy | Vestd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productExplore an interactive API reference with runnable examples | ai-native | partialT 4/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productDownload a machine-readable API spec (OpenAPI or equivalent) | ai-native | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productTest against a sandbox environment without touching production data | ai-native | fullC 8/10 | n/a | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
| Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productRely on versioned APIs with a documented deprecation policy | ai-native | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
Automation depth — how much of the product can run unattendedAutomation depth
| Story | Persona | Carta | Pulley | Cake Equity | Fidelity Private Shares | Ledgy | Vestd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Automation depth — how much of the product can run unattendedPerform bulk operations across many items at once | ai-native | partialC 4/10 | none 0/10 | partialT 3/10 | partialT 4/10 | partialT 5/10 | partialT 3/10 |
| Automation depth — how much of the product can run unattendedDefine rules that trigger actions automatically on events | ai-native | none 0/10 | n/a | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
| Automation depth — how much of the product can run unattendedSchedule recurring jobs or workflows | ai-native | none 0/10 | n/a | n/a | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | n/a |
| Automation depth — how much of the product can run unattendedVersion, review, and roll back my automations | ai-native | none 0/10 | n/a | n/a | n/a | none 0/10 | n/a |
Cap table core — stories about cap table core in this arenaCap table core
Certificates
| Story | Persona | Carta | Pulley | Cake Equity | Fidelity Private Shares | Ledgy | Vestd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cap table core — stories about cap table core in this arenaIssue electronic share certificates that are legally signed in-platform and permanently linked to the cap table entry they represent | founder | none 0/10 | partialC 5/10 | partialC 6/10 | fullC 7/10 | partialC 5/10 | partialC 5/10 |
Migration
| Story | Persona | Carta | Pulley | Cake Equity | Fidelity Private Shares | Ledgy | Vestd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cap table core — stories about cap table core in this arenaMigrate an existing cap table — from a spreadsheet or another platform — with guided import, validation, and reconciliation against source documents | ops | none 0/10 | partialC 6/10 | partialC 7/10 | partialC 3/10 | partialC 3/10 | partialC 4/10 |
Source of truth
| Story | Persona | Carta | Pulley | Cake Equity | Fidelity Private Shares | Ledgy | Vestd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cap table core — stories about cap table core in this arenaMaintain my full cap table — share classes, certificates, SAFEs, and option grants — as a live single source of truth that investors and auditors rely on | founder | fullC 7/10 | fullC 8/10 | fullC 8/10 | fullC 8/10 | fullC 8/10 | fullC 8/10 |
Compliance filings — stories about compliance filings in this arenaCompliance filings
Stock comp
| Story | Persona | Carta | Pulley | Cake Equity | Fidelity Private Shares | Ledgy | Vestd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compliance filings — stories about compliance filings in this arenaProduce ASC 718 stock-based compensation expense reports my accountants can hand to auditors | ops | none 0/10 | partialC 6/10 | none 0/10 | fullC 8/10 | partialC 6/10 | none 0/10 |
Us filings
| Story | Persona | Carta | Pulley | Cake Equity | Fidelity Private Shares | Ledgy | Vestd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compliance filings — stories about compliance filings in this arenaUS equity compliance — Rule 701 disclosure thresholds, Form 3921 filings, 83(b) elections — is tracked and generated from the cap table automatically | ops | none 0/10 | partialC 5/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 4/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
Equity data access — stories about equity data access in this arenaEquity data access
Agent access
| Story | Persona | Carta | Pulley | Cake Equity | Fidelity Private Shares | Ledgy | Vestd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Equity data access — stories about equity data access in this arenaAn agent can draft securities (e.g. option grants) via the platform's programmatic surface and leave them queued for human board approval | ai-native | partialC 6/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
| Equity data access — stories about equity data access in this arenaHave an agent pull my current cap table programmatically and reconcile it against my data room before a financing | ai-native | partialT 6/10 | none 0/10 | partialT 5/10 | none 0/10 | partialT 5/10 | none 0/10 |
Api access
| Story | Persona | Carta | Pulley | Cake Equity | Fidelity Private Shares | Ledgy | Vestd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Equity data access — stories about equity data access in this arenaPull the full capitalization table — stakeholders, share classes, securities, and vesting states — through a documented programmatic API | developer | fullC 9/10 | none 0/10 | partialT 4/10 | none 0/10 | partialT 6/10 | none 0/10 |
Partner access
| Story | Persona | Carta | Pulley | Cake Equity | Fidelity Private Shares | Ledgy | Vestd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Equity data access — stories about equity data access in this arenaThird parties my company authorizes — law firms, HRIS vendors, wealth managers — can access scoped slices of equity data on our behalf without full admin credentials | developer | fullC 8/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 4/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 6/10 | partialT 4/10 |
Equity issuance — stories about equity issuance in this arenaEquity issuance
Bulk issuance
| Story | Persona | Carta | Pulley | Cake Equity | Fidelity Private Shares | Ledgy | Vestd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Equity issuance — stories about equity issuance in this arenaUpload or issue securities in bulk — a batch of grants or historical transactions — instead of entering them one at a time | ops | partialC 3/10 | partialC 6/10 | partialC 6/10 | partialC 6/10 | fullC 7/10 | partialC 4/10 |
Option grants
| Story | Persona | Carta | Pulley | Cake Equity | Fidelity Private Shares | Ledgy | Vestd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Equity issuance — stories about equity issuance in this arenaIssue options to a new hire with a board approval flow and a 409A-compliant strike price in one end-to-end workflow | founder | partialC 6/10 | partialC 5/10 | partialC 6/10 | fullC 7/10 | partialC 3/10 | partialC 6/10 |
Vesting
| Story | Persona | Carta | Pulley | Cake Equity | Fidelity Private Shares | Ledgy | Vestd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Equity issuance — stories about equity issuance in this arenaDefine custom vesting schedules — cliffs, milestones, acceleration on exit — and the platform tracks vested vs unvested automatically | ops | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 6/10 | partialC 6/10 | partialC 5/10 | none 0/10 |
Fundraising modeling — stories about fundraising modeling in this arenaFundraising modeling
Investor relations
| Story | Persona | Carta | Pulley | Cake Equity | Fidelity Private Shares | Ledgy | Vestd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fundraising modeling — stories about fundraising modeling in this arenaMy investors get their own portal view of their holdings and can receive structured updates without emailing me for the cap table | founder | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 6/10 | partialC 4/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 7/10 |
Safes
| Story | Persona | Carta | Pulley | Cake Equity | Fidelity Private Shares | Ledgy | Vestd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fundraising modeling — stories about fundraising modeling in this arenaCreate, send, and e-sign SAFEs or convertible notes in-platform, and they land on the cap table with their conversion terms modeled | founder | partialC 4/10 | fullC 8/10 | fullC 8/10 | partialC 7/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
Scenario modeling
| Story | Persona | Carta | Pulley | Cake Equity | Fidelity Private Shares | Ledgy | Vestd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fundraising modeling — stories about fundraising modeling in this arenaRun exit waterfall analyses showing proceeds per share class and stakeholder under different exit values, honoring preferences and participation | ops | none 0/10 | partialC 5/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 4/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
| Fundraising modeling — stories about fundraising modeling in this arenaModel a priced round — dilution, option pool top-up, SAFE conversion, pro-forma ownership — and share the scenario with counsel and investors | founder | none 0/10 | partialC 6/10 | partialC 6/10 | partialC 6/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
Governance boardroom — stories about governance boardroom in this arenaGovernance boardroom
Board approvals
| Story | Persona | Carta | Pulley | Cake Equity | Fidelity Private Shares | Ledgy | Vestd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Governance boardroom — stories about governance boardroom in this arenaBoard consents and stockholder approvals are drafted, routed for e-signature, and archived against the transactions they authorize | founder | none 0/10 | partialC 5/10 | partialC 5/10 | fullC 9/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 4/10 |
Counsel access
| Story | Persona | Carta | Pulley | Cake Equity | Fidelity Private Shares | Ledgy | Vestd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Governance boardroom — stories about governance boardroom in this arenaMy outside counsel can work directly in the platform with law-firm roles — preparing documents and updating records without emailing spreadsheets | ops | partialC 3/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
Data room
| Story | Persona | Carta | Pulley | Cake Equity | Fidelity Private Shares | Ledgy | Vestd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Governance boardroom — stories about governance boardroom in this arenaShare a permissioned, diligence-ready data room — cap table views plus underlying documents — with counsel and investors | ops | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 4/10 | partialC 7/10 | partialC 3/10 | fullC 7/10 |
Integrations hris — stories about integrations hris in this arenaIntegrations hris
Hris sync
| Story | Persona | Carta | Pulley | Cake Equity | Fidelity Private Shares | Ledgy | Vestd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Integrations hris — stories about integrations hris in this arenaStakeholders sync from my HRIS/payroll system (e.g. Gusto, Rippling) so new hires and terminations flow into equity records automatically | ops | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 6/10 | partialC 5/10 | partialC 5/10 |
Openness — open source, data portability, and self-hosting storiesOpenness
| Story | Persona | Carta | Pulley | Cake Equity | Fidelity Private Shares | Ledgy | Vestd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Openness — open source, data portability, and self-hosting storiesDo everything through the API that I can do in the UI | ai-native | partialT 5/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
| Openness — open source, data portability, and self-hosting storiesExport all of my data in open formats and leave | ai-native | disputedD 3/10 | partialC 4/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 3/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
| Openness — open source, data portability, and self-hosting storiesRead the product's source under an open license | ai-native | n/a | n/a | n/a | none 0/10 | n/a | n/a |
| Openness — open source, data portability, and self-hosting storiesSelf-host the core product | ai-native | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
Privacy posture — data-handling and privacy storiesPrivacy posture
| Story | Persona | Carta | Pulley | Cake Equity | Fidelity Private Shares | Ledgy | Vestd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Privacy posture — data-handling and privacy storiesChoose where my data is stored (region/residency) | ai-native | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
| Privacy posture — data-handling and privacy storiesPrevent my data from being used to train AI models | ai-native | none 0/10 | n/a | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | n/a |
| Privacy posture — data-handling and privacy storiesControl data retention and deletion | ai-native | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
| Privacy posture — data-handling and privacy storiesOpt out of telemetry and usage tracking | ai-native | none 0/10 | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | none 0/10 |
Reporting exports — stories about reporting exports in this arenaReporting exports
Audit trail
| Story | Persona | Carta | Pulley | Cake Equity | Fidelity Private Shares | Ledgy | Vestd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reporting exports — stories about reporting exports in this arenaEvery change to the cap table is captured in an audit log — who changed what, when, and under what authorization | ops | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 4/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 |
Exports
| Story | Persona | Carta | Pulley | Cake Equity | Fidelity Private Shares | Ledgy | Vestd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reporting exports — stories about reporting exports in this arenaExport my complete cap table and full transaction history to open formats (Excel/CSV) at any time — my ownership data is never held hostage | ops | disputedD 4/10 | partialC 5/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 4/10 | partialC 5/10 | none 0/10 |
Stakeholder experience — stories about stakeholder experience in this arenaStakeholder experience
Education
| Story | Persona | Carta | Pulley | Cake Equity | Fidelity Private Shares | Ledgy | Vestd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stakeholder experience — stories about stakeholder experience in this arenaThe platform explains my equity in plain language — tax treatment, exercise windows, dilution — not just numbers | employee | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 3/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 5/10 |
Exercising
| Story | Persona | Carta | Pulley | Cake Equity | Fidelity Private Shares | Ledgy | Vestd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stakeholder experience — stories about stakeholder experience in this arenaExercise my vested options online — including payment and the resulting share issuance — without paper forms | employee | disputedD 4/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 6/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 6/10 |
Portal
| Story | Persona | Carta | Pulley | Cake Equity | Fidelity Private Shares | Ledgy | Vestd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stakeholder experience — stories about stakeholder experience in this arenaI get my own portal showing my grants, vesting progress, strike price, and what my equity could be worth under different outcomes | employee | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 5/10 | partialC 5/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 4/10 |
Valuations 409a — stories about valuations 409a in this arenaValuations 409a
International
| Story | Persona | Carta | Pulley | Cake Equity | Fidelity Private Shares | Ledgy | Vestd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Valuations 409a — stories about valuations 409a in this arenaNon-US valuations and schemes — UK HMRC/EMI valuations, country-specific option plans — are supported for my international entities | ops | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 4/10 | partialC 5/10 |
Us 409a
| Story | Persona | Carta | Pulley | Cake Equity | Fidelity Private Shares | Ledgy | Vestd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Valuations 409a — stories about valuations 409a in this arenaOrder an audit-ready 409A valuation in-platform, generated from my live cap table data, and get refreshed valuations on schedule | founder | partialC 3/10 | partialC 6/10 | partialC 6/10 | partialC 4/10 | none 0/10 | partialC 5/10 |
Verdict✓ fullclear evidence~ partialwith caveats! disputedevidence conflicts— noneno evidence foundn/aquestion doesn't apply to this kind of product
ProofT probedtested by usX communityusers back itC claimedvendor claim onlyD contradictedevidence disagrees⚿ auth-gatedprobe hit a live sign-in wall — verified reachable, untestable keylessly
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