Product updates and practical playbooks for modern teams

Caplia v2.0 is now live. This is the most significant release we have shipped, and it sets the foundation for what venture fundraising looks like next.

Caplia is the infrastructure layer for venture fundraising. v2.0 brings founders, funds and accelerators into one shared system for capital readiness, screening and deployment.

Why we built it

Venture fundraising is fragmented. Decks live in folders. Data rooms live in another tool. Investor lists live in spreadsheets. Follow-ups live in inboxes. The result is wasted hours, lost context, and a process that punishes both sides of the table.

Founders spend months preparing materials that investors take five minutes to skim. Funds drown in inbound that all looks different. Accelerators run programmes on forms, decks and mentor notes that never connect to the capital their cohorts need.

Caplia v2.0 replaces that. The same Caplia Passport that founders build is the one funds review and accelerators support. Iris, our agentic fundraising co-pilot, sits across all three sides. The Caplia Readiness Index quantifies preparedness against 27 capital readiness signals across five areas, built with venture experts at Oxford.

What is new in v2.0

Decision-ready Caplia Passport

The Passport is now structured for institutional review by default. Investors see consistent fields, traction evidence, financials, round details and supporting materials in one structured profile that updates live. Founders build it once, share it with a secure link, and update it forever.

Iris, agentic across the raise

Iris reads your Passport, surfaces gaps, prepares for investor questions, matches you with relevant investors and guides outreach and follow-up. For investors, Iris generates first-look summaries, surfaces risks, extracts traction signals and prepares IC-ready notes.

Iris is connected to your Passport, CRI, investor database, data room and investor CRM. The work it does is grounded in your real fundraise, not generic prompts.

Caplia Readiness Index

The CRI scores every company against 27 signals across five areas. Founders see exactly where they stand and what to focus on next. Programmes see readiness gaps across cohorts. Funds see consistent, comparable signal across inbound.

Enterprise-grade security by default

ISO 27001 certified. Cyber Essentials Plus. GDPR compliant. EU AI Act aligned. Encrypted in transit using TLS 1.3 and at rest using AES 256. Access can be revoked instantly. Every action is logged.

What this means for you

If you are a founder, build your Caplia Passport once and run sharper raises forever. Replace the deck. Track engagement. Update once and every active investor sees the latest version.

If you are a fund, turn inbound into structured signal. Screen faster, surface risk automatically and walk into IC with decision-ready summaries.

If you are an accelerator, manage applications, guide cohorts to capital readiness and connect founders to investors from one connected system.

v2.0 is where the category begins.

We are not building another founder tool. We are not a CRM. We are not a community.

Caplia is the infrastructure layer for venture fundraising. The shared system sitting between companies raising capital and the organisations allocating or supporting that capital.

Why infrastructure, not a tool

Founder tooling has been built in silos. Decks live in one place, data rooms in another, investor lists in a third, follow-ups in a fourth. Each layer is owned by a different vendor, with different formats and different incentives. None of them connect.

Funds and accelerators sit on the other side of the same broken system. They receive different formats from every founder, scrape signal from inconsistent inputs, and run their own internal infrastructure to make it work. The cost is paid by everyone.

We believe venture fundraising needs the same shift other categories already went through. Recruitment has Greenhouse. Workforce management has Workday. Identity has Okta. These are not features. They are infrastructure that everyone in the category builds around.

The three principles we build on

One Passport, three sides

The Caplia Passport is the core object. The same Passport founders build is the one funds review, the one accelerators support and the one investors track. Founders own it forever. Funds compare on consistent terms. Accelerators run programmes against shared readiness signals.

If the Passport is the object, the rest of the system is what acts on it. Iris reads it. The CRI scores it. Workspaces share access to it. Audit logs track every action against it.

Structured signal beats narrative

Venture has rewarded narrative for decades. We think the next decade rewards structure. Not because narrative does not matter, but because investors review more companies in less time with more scrutiny. Soft signals like a warm intro and a confident pitch are still useful. They are no longer enough.

Every primitive in Caplia is built to turn fragmented information into structured signal. The Caplia Readiness Index is the most explicit example: 27 capital readiness signals across five areas, scored consistently across founders, cohorts and stages.

Trust is a baseline, not a feature

Fundraising data is sensitive. Cap tables, financials, customer names, contracts, road maps. Most founder tooling treats security as an enterprise tier upgrade. We think that is wrong.

Caplia is ISO 27001 certified, holds Cyber Essentials Plus, is GDPR compliant and operates within an EU AI Act aligned governance framework. Every Passport is encrypted in transit and at rest. Access can be revoked instantly. Customer data is never used to train external models.

What we are building toward

A venture ecosystem where every company arrives in the same format, every fund screens against the same signals, and every accelerator runs cohorts against the same readiness standard.

When that exists, capital flows faster. Stronger companies get funded sooner. Weaker rounds get clearer feedback earlier. The whole system becomes sharper.

That is the infrastructure layer. That is what we are building.

When founders share a deck, they are sharing one of the most sensitive artefacts a company produces. Cap table details, financials, customer names, road map, hiring plans, sometimes contracts.

Most founders treat it as a marketing event. They send it to a list, hope for replies and forget which version went where. The result is a confidential document scattered across investor inboxes with no visibility, no expiry and no way to revoke.

This is the founder side of fundraising security, and it has been ignored for too long.

Why this matters more than founders realise

A pitch deck is shared at the worst possible time, to the largest possible audience, in the most uncontrolled way. Founders share their most confidential information with people they have never met, often within minutes of an introduction.

The risks compound:

• The deck gets forwarded to associates, analysts and partners with no founder visibility

• Old versions stay in inboxes long after numbers and round details change

• Sensitive financials sit in unprotected attachments on personal devices

• Confidential customer names show up in screenshots and screen shares

• Founders cannot tell who has actually reviewed the company

None of this is malicious. It is just how decks travel. The deck format itself does not give founders any control after the send button is clicked.

What changes with the Caplia Passport

The Caplia Passport is a structured, decision-ready profile shared by secure link, not by file attachment. That single design choice changes the security model entirely.

Access is controlled. Founders decide who has access, what they see and how long the link stays active.

Access is revocable. Once revoked, prior viewers lose access to current and historical content. Links stop working.

Access is tiered. Share a structured first-look preview at the top of the funnel. Deeper materials unlock as conversations progress.

Every action is logged. Every view, every section opened, every download is recorded with timestamp, user and action.

Updates flow. Update once and every active investor sees the latest version. No old versions floating around.

The Caplia security stack

Caplia is built as the infrastructure layer for venture fundraising. Security is treated as such.

• ISO 27001 certified. Operational standard for information security management.

• Cyber Essentials Plus. Independently verified cybersecurity controls.

• GDPR compliant. Founder data ownership stays with the founder. Documented data processing, retention and rights support.

• EU AI Act aligned. Iris and every AI workflow operate inside a documented governance framework with transparency, traceability and human oversight.

• Encrypted in transit and at rest. TLS 1.3 in transit. AES 256 at rest. Every Passport, document and data point.

• No model training on customer data. Customer and founder data is never used to train external models.

• Region-specific data hosting. Customer data is hosted in secure, region-specific environments.

What founders should ask before sharing

Before sending fundraising materials, every founder should be able to answer:

• Who has access right now

• What can each person see

• How long does the link stay active

• How do I revoke access

• Where is the audit log

• What happens if my round details change

If the answer to any of these is “I don't know,” the materials should not be sent in that format.

Fundraising security is not a feature of an enterprise plan. It is a baseline. Every founder deserves the same controls institutional investors expect from the platforms they themselves use.

Capital readiness is the term founders hear most often, and the one they understand least. It is not about how good your idea is. It is about whether your business can be assessed quickly, on the same terms investors apply to every other company they screen.

Most rounds break down on readiness, not story. Investors disengage when materials are inconsistent, claims are unsupported, or the round mechanics do not hold up under structured review. A founder can have a great company and still lose months on a raise because the company is not capital ready.

This is why we built the Caplia Readiness Index (CRI). It quantifies capital readiness across 27 signals in five areas, built with venture experts at Oxford. It is the universal capital readiness signal for the venture ecosystem.

What capital readiness is not

It is not your fundraising materials. A polished deck does not make a company capital ready. Many companies with beautiful decks have nothing behind them. Many strong companies present poorly because no one ever taught them what investors actually look for.

It is not your stage. Capital readiness is not pre-seed versus seed versus Series A. A pre-seed company can be more capital ready than a Series A, if the underlying signals are sharper.

It is not just traction. Traction is one signal. It is not the only one.

The five areas of capital readiness

The CRI scores every company across five areas:

1. Founder and team — composition, complementarity, prior experience and ability to execute

2. Market and opportunity — size, structure, timing and the founder's grasp of why now

3. Product and traction — what is built, what is being used, and the evidence behind growth claims

4. Commercial and financial — revenue, unit economics, financial discipline and projections grounded in reality

5. Round mechanics and clarity — what is being raised, on what terms, with what use of funds

Within those five areas, the CRI scores 27 specific signals. Each one maps to a question investors actually ask before they decide.

Why this matters now

The venture market has changed. Investors review more companies, in less time, with more scrutiny. The bar is higher. Soft signals like a warm intro and a confident pitch are not enough. Companies that come through with structure, evidence and clarity move faster. Companies that do not, stall.

Capital readiness is the new founder metric that matters most. It is what allows you to walk into any investor conversation knowing exactly where you stand and what to sharpen next.

How founders use the CRI

Founders use the CRI to:

• See where they stand against the same signals investors use

• Identify the specific gaps holding their round back

• Prioritise what to fix first, before approaching investors

• Track readiness as they prepare

• Walk into every meeting knowing exactly which questions are coming

Iris uses the CRI score to tailor its support. The lower the score on a specific signal, the more Iris focuses preparation, materials and outreach guidance on closing that gap.

How investors and accelerators use the CRI

For funds, the CRI is consistent signal. Every company comes through with the same 27 fields scored. Comparison is faster, screening is sharper, and weaker areas are flagged automatically.

For accelerators, the CRI is the spine of programme operations. Track readiness across the cohort, focus mentor support where it actually moves the needle, and graduate companies into demo day with measurable, comparable readiness.

The bottom line

A capital ready company runs a sharper raise. The CRI is how you get there.

Caplia is shared infrastructure for venture fundraising. Founders, funds and accelerators all run on the same platform, but each side uses it differently. This post is a quick checklist for thinking about which plan fits where you are today.

A note on pricing: Caplia pricing for institutional users is bespoke. We do not commit to one price. Every fund and accelerator agreement is shaped to your team, pipeline, cohort size and feature depth. The checklist below helps you scope what you actually need before talking to our team.

For founders

Founders can build a Caplia Passport for free. Paid plans unlock advanced Iris workflows, deeper investor matching and Caplia Circle benefits.

Use the free plan if:

• You are early in your raise and want to structure your story

• You want a clean, secure way to share your company instead of sending decks

• You are exploring readiness against the CRI before approaching investors

Upgrade to a paid plan if:

• You are running an active raise and want Iris drafting outreach and follow-ups

• You want deeper investor matching from the Caplia database

• You want priority support, expert Passport reviews and Caplia Circle benefits

• You are managing a multi-stage round with tiered investor access

Most founders find the paid plan pays back in saved hours within the first week of active outreach.

For funds

Fund pricing is bespoke. We work with each team based on fund size, screening volume and depth of Iris and platform features.

If your fund is evaluating Caplia, scope these questions before the conversation:

• How many companies enter your inbound funnel each quarter

• How many partners and reviewers will use Caplia

• Do you want Iris configured to your fund's specific areas of focus

• Do you need Caplia connected to your existing CRM or investor tools

• Do you require regional data residency or specific compliance posture

The answers determine the shape of the agreement. The platform scales the same way regardless. Bigger funds get more configuration, more support, more depth.

For accelerators

Programme pricing is also bespoke. We work with accelerators, university programmes and founder communities on cohort-based agreements.

Scope these questions before talking to our team:

• How many cohorts do you run a year, and how many founders per cohort

• Do mentors and partners need access

• Are you running multiple parallel cohorts under one programme

• Do you want investor handoff structured through Caplia at demo day

• Do you need custom CRI weighting tied to your programme priorities

Most accelerators start with a single cohort cycle to validate the model, then move to multi-cohort agreements with tailored pricing.

What every plan includes

Regardless of tier or audience, every Caplia plan includes:

• The Caplia Passport, the structured profile that travels with the founder forever

• The Caplia Readiness Index across 27 signals

• Iris, our agentic fundraising co-pilot

• Enterprise-grade security: ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials Plus, GDPR, EU AI Act aligned

• Encryption in transit and at rest

• Instant access revocation and full audit logging

These are the baselines. They are not enterprise upgrades.

How to choose

The simplest rule: pick the plan that fits where you are today, not where you were six months ago. Most teams choose too late, after processes break. The platform is more useful when it joins the workflow earlier.

If you are not sure, talk to our team. We will scope what fits, and shape an agreement around it.

Funds do not have a sourcing problem. They have a screening problem.

Most funds review hundreds of inbound companies a quarter. Each one arrives in a different format, with different fields, different evidence and different definitions of traction. Investment teams spend the early hours of every week parsing inconsistency before they can compare anything.

Caplia for Funds sits at the entry point of your pipeline. It turns every inbound company into a structured Caplia Passport with an intelligence layer your team can use to screen, compare and progress opportunities from first look to diligence.

Why traditional screening breaks

The deal flow CRM was built for tracking, not screening. It tells you where a company sits in your pipeline. It does not tell you whether the company is investment grade, where it is weakest, or what to ask next. The screening work happens in inboxes, decks, data room links and partner conversations.

The result is predictable. Strong companies get missed because the early signal was buried. Weaker companies progress further than they should because the gaps were not surfaced early enough. Investment teams spend more time triaging inbound than working with founders.

What changes with Caplia

Three things change when a fund runs inbound through Caplia.

1. Every company arrives in the same format

Whether a founder shares a Caplia Passport directly, submits through your inbound funnel, or comes via referral, every company is structured into the same Passport. Same fields, same evidence, same shape. Comparison becomes consistent across the cohort instead of one off per company.

2. Iris does the first read

Iris generates a first-look summary on every company. It surfaces the standout signals, flags the missing information, identifies likely red flags and pulls out the evidence behind growth claims. Your team walks into the company with context, not a blank slate.

Iris is configured to your fund's areas of focus, screening priorities and the signals your team weighs most heavily. The first read becomes a working artefact instead of a manual triage step.

3. The CRI gives you consistent signal

The Caplia Readiness Index scores every company across 27 signals in five areas. Founders, accelerators and your fund see the same score. The composition of that score tells you immediately where the company is strong, where it is weak and what to ask next.

How fund teams use Caplia

In practice, this changes the screening week.

First look. Investment partners review Iris-generated summaries and CRI scores instead of opening 30 decks. The strongest signals surface first. Companies that need more digging are flagged automatically.

Comparison. Side by side review on consistent fields means partner debates focus on judgement, not on parsing inconsistency.

Progression. As companies progress, deeper materials unlock through tiered access. Diligence questions are generated automatically by Iris, anchored to specific gaps in the Passport.

IC preparation. Iris generates IC-ready summaries from the Passport, so the work between first look and committee runs faster.

Pipeline. Caplia connects to your existing CRM. Every screening decision, score and reviewer note is logged with timestamp and user. Pipeline visibility improves without adding a new system.

What this means for fund operations

Funds running on Caplia tell us screening time per company drops significantly, partner attention shifts from triage to judgement, and the early signal becomes a fund operating asset rather than a static inbox.

This is what it looks like when inbound becomes structured signal. The bar gets higher. The work gets sharper. The companies that should win, win faster.