Articles of association, shareholder agreements, cap table, accounts, key contracts. Having this ready signals professionalism and speeds up due diligence.
A data room is a secure, organised folder containing all the documents an investor needs to complete due diligence on your company. It's not something you build for a first meeting. It's something you build before you're in serious conversations — because when an investor says "can you send the data room?", they mean today, not in two weeks.
Having a data room ready signals that you're serious, organised, and have nothing to hide. Not having one when investors ask is a surprisingly common way to lose momentum in a deal.
You don't need everything at seed stage — this isn't a Series B due diligence pack. But you do need the core documents.
Corporate documents. Certificate of incorporation, articles of association, and any shareholder agreements. If you've done previous funding rounds (including SAFEs or convertible notes), include those agreements too.
Cap table. A clear, up-to-date record of who owns what. This should show founders, any investors, any option pool, and any outstanding warrants or convertible instruments. Tools like Seedlegals, Capdesk, or even a clean spreadsheet work at this stage.
Accounts. Statutory accounts if you have them, or management accounts if you don't. At very early stage, even a clean set of bank statements and a simple P&L is acceptable. What matters is that you can show the financial history of the company clearly.
Key contracts. Any contracts that are material to the business — significant customer contracts, supplier agreements, IP assignments, employment contracts for key hires. You don't need every contract, just the ones an investor would want to know about.
IP documentation. Confirmation that your intellectual property is owned by the company, not by a founder personally. This is especially important if founders did early development work before the company was incorporated. An IP assignment agreement resolves this cleanly.
SEIS/EIS advance assurance. If you have it — and you should — include the letter from HMRC. Not sure about SEIS/EIS? Read the SEIS/EIS guide →
Customer pipeline or CRM export showing your sales activity. Product roadmap. Any press coverage, awards, or notable partnerships.
Use a shared Google Drive or Dropbox folder with clear subfolders: Corporate, Financials, Contracts, IP, Funding History, Team. Share it with view-only access until you're ready to move to full due diligence. Tools like Notion, Docsend, or dedicated data room platforms (Seedlegals has one) let you track who's viewed what and revoke access if needed.
A data room that's six months out of date is almost as bad as no data room. Whenever something material changes — a new funding instrument, a key contract, updated accounts — update the data room the same week.
What good looks like: A founder who can share a data room link within 24 hours of being asked, where every folder has clearly labelled documents that are current, and where an investor can work through it in under an hour without needing to ask follow-up questions for basic information.
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Try the funding finder →This is general information, not financial or legal advice. Always do your own research and seek independent professional advice.