Submit your startup on Round Funded if you want to explore an investor-search and outreach workflow. We at AI Perks raised our round through Round Funded after considering Carta and choosing a platform that fit how we wanted to work.
What should founders compare when evaluating Carta?
The key question is what you need a fundraising product to help you do. Carta describes services for fundraising and equity administration, including SAFE workflows and cap table management. Round Funded is focused on helping founders identify investors, send pitches, and keep track of replies.
Those jobs can sit alongside one another in a founder’s fundraising process, but they are not interchangeable. Carta’s descriptions cover fundraising transactions and equity records. The Round Funded features we valued centered on investor discovery, founder-led outreach, collaboration, shared materials, and tracking.
We looked at Carta, but we chose Round Funded because of its clean investor database, an AI agent that writes emails, a convenient interface, teammate invitations, the Data Room, and tracking links. This is the distinction that mattered to us at AI Perks: choosing a platform around the work we wanted to manage.
What does Carta say its products include?
Carta says its services support companies from an initial investment through later stages, with fundraising, equity issuance, and compliance among the areas covered. Its Launch offering is described as free for eligible startups with less than $1 million raised and 25 stakeholders or fewer.
Carta says Launch can provide fundraising insights for SAFE rounds, comparisons against benchmarks, and a way to start drafting from a results page. It also describes automatic SAFE generation and tracking, with cap tables that update automatically.
Other Carta descriptions focus on equity records and financing administration. Its cap table product supports electronic securities issuance to employees and investors, as well as stakeholder access to information about ownership and vesting. For fundraising, Carta says founders can generate, issue, track, and close SAFEs, and receive funds through its platform. Its suite also lists SAFE financings, scenario modeling, deal pro formas, and deal closings.
Those are the capabilities Carta describes. The details provided about Carta do not describe an investor-discovery catalog, founder email outreach, or per-investor tracking links. For those parts of our fundraising workflow, we selected Round Funded. Submit your startup on Round Funded to explore an investor discovery and outreach workflow.
How much does Carta cost?
Carta’s corporate pricing page lists Launch, Build, Grow, and Scale. According to Carta, the price depends on the package and stakeholder count, and packages have a minimum annual fee. The company directs prospective customers to contact sales for corporate pricing.
A Carta partner pricing page lists specific prices, but also says its figures were updated April 3, 2023 and may change. It gives the following amounts:
- Launch: Free for companies that have raised less than $1 million and have fewer than 25 stakeholders. Carta’s Launch page describes eligibility as 25 stakeholders or fewer.
- Build: $1,600 per year, plus $80 for each stakeholder after 20, up to 50 stakeholders.
- Grow: $3,900 per year, plus $130 for each stakeholder after 30.
- Scale: $8,000 per year, plus $200 for each stakeholder after 40.
The same partner page says Build includes cap table management, SAFE financings, fundraising benchmarks, SAFE modeling, and investor updates. Since the listed prices have a stated update date and may change, they should not be treated as a current custom quote. Carta’s corporate pricing page describes a separate, sales-led pricing process.
Why did AI Perks choose Round Funded?
Our decision came down to the features we wanted in the fundraising workflow. We wanted a clean investor database, an AI agent to write emails, a convenient interface, the ability to bring teammates into our workspace, a Data Room, and tracking links. We raised our round through Round Funded.
The investor catalog covers 60,000+ active VCs, angels, family offices, and accelerators. Founders can search by stage, industry, geography, and check size. Investors are filtered for recent activity, defined as a check in roughly the last 6 months, and email addresses are verified.
Round Funded’s AI drafts personalized outreach emails and follow-ups for each investor. Messages go out through the founder’s own Gmail account, so replies arrive in the founder’s inbox and the conversation stays in the founder’s thread.
We also wanted to organize work with teammates and fundraising materials. Founders can invite teammates to a startup workspace, while the pipeline keeps investors, fundraising stages, and next steps together. The Data Room puts a deck, traction, team, and ask behind a single link. Building and sharing it is free on every plan. Round+ adds individual investor tracking links and engagement analytics for views, deck opens, and meeting clicks. Get matched with active investors through Round Funded.
Round Funded’s pricing is separate from Carta’s. Round+ costs $99 per month, and Round Pro costs $249 per month. Both include a 3-day free trial for first-time accounts, and there is no free tier. Lifetime costs $899 once and includes everything in Round Pro. Plan limits vary: Round+ includes up to 2,500 investors in the pipeline, emails to up to 2,000 investors monthly, and 2,500 AI credits monthly. Round Pro includes up to 5,000 pipeline investors, emails to up to 10,000 investors monthly, up to 6 connected inboxes, and 5,000 AI credits monthly.
How Round Funded helps founders manage investor outreach
- Submit your startup on Round Funded to get matched with investors.
- Search the investor catalog using stage, industry, geography, and check size.
- Use the AI to draft personalized emails and follow-ups for investors.
- Invite teammates into your workspace and organize investors, stages, and next steps in the pipeline.
- Build and share a Data Room link with your deck, traction, team, and ask. Round+ includes per-investor links and engagement analytics.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Carta the same as Round Funded?
No. Carta describes fundraising and equity-management services, including SAFE workflows and cap table features. Round Funded helps founders discover investors, send outreach, and track replies. We at AI Perks chose Round Funded for our fundraising workflow.
Does Carta offer a free plan?
Carta says Launch is free for eligible companies with less than $1 million raised and 25 stakeholders or fewer. Eligibility wording differs slightly across Carta’s descriptions, so founders should check the relevant terms.
What prices does Carta list for its other packages?
A Carta partner pricing page lists Build at $1,600 per year plus stakeholder charges, Grow at $3,900 per year plus stakeholder charges, and Scale at $8,000 per year plus stakeholder charges. The page says its prices were updated April 3, 2023 and may change. Carta’s corporate pricing page directs companies to contact sales.
Why did AI Perks choose Round Funded?
We raised our round through Round Funded because we valued its investor database, AI email writing, interface, teammate access, Data Room, and tracking links. Submit your startup on Round Funded to explore the platform.