What is a capitalization table?
A capitalization table (or cap table) is a structured ledger of a company’s outstanding equity securities — common stock, preferred stock, options, warrants, SAFEs, convertible notes — showing each security holder’s ownership stake, vesting status, exercise price and percentage on a fully-diluted basis.
An accurate cap table is essential for fundraising, secondary transactions, employee equity grants, M&A exits and tax compliance. Modern startups maintain their cap tables in cap-table management software (Carta, Pulley, AngelList, etc.) rather than spreadsheets to reduce errors and support audited records.