Raise Radar

Form D is the notice a company files with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission when it sells securities under a Regulation D exemption, the rule most venture rounds rely on. It is due within 15 days of the first sale and lists the issuer, its state and industry group, the total offering, the amount sold so far, the date of first sale, the number of investors and the names of executive officers, directors and promoters. It does not disclose valuation or who the investors are.

Because the filing deadline runs from the first sale, not from any announcement. Companies often file weeks before they publicize a round, and many never publicize it at all. A new Form D from a young technology or life-sciences company is frequently the first public record that it has raised money.

At the last build, the issuer had no funding round in the Value Add VC database and no Value Add Pulse story within 60 days of the offering, and neither its name, its brand-like first word in a funding headline, nor two of its officers' surnames in one funding story appeared in the Pulse stories and wire and outlet headlines we ingest over the same window. It is a statement about our coverage only. Other outlets may have reported the raise, and some publications write up Form D filings themselves.

No. Not every raise files a Form D: SAFEs and convertible notes are sometimes filed late or not at all, some companies rely on other exemptions, and foreign companies raising abroad may never file. This page also leaves out pooled investment funds, SPVs and holding vehicles, real estate, oil and gas, banking and lending issuers, limited partnerships and LLCs, companies incorporated more than five years ago, and filings under $1M sold.

Form D reports what has been sold as of the filing, not the final size of the round. A company that files after the first close of a larger round reports only that first close, and later closes appear in amendments (Form D/A). The total offering column is the amount the company says it intends to sell, and can be open-ended.

Automatically. The page is rebuilt with every deployment. When a funding round for the company enters our database or a Pulse story covers it, or when the filing is more than about 60 days old, it drops off at the next build.