Vinyl Equity

Vinyl Equity is a Chicago-based financial technology infrastructure company and SEC-registered transfer agent serving publicly traded and private companies. Its platform covers share registry and shareholder recordkeeping, restricted securities and delegending, dividend plan management, proxy voting and annual general meetings, corporate actions, equity operations, paying agency and reporting and analytics. The company describes itself as a DTC-authorized DWAC/FAST Agent and DRS Participant, and serves clients across Nasdaq, NYSE and OTC Markets.

The product is built as a cloud-native, API-first system that connects issuers, shareholders and service providers in one environment. Registrar functionality uses immutable ledgers, digital KYC, e-signatures and real-time tracking; corporate actions supported include conversions, forward and reverse stock splits, stock dividends, mergers and acquisitions, tender offers, exchanges, spinoffs, rights offerings and paperless warrant exercises. Other capabilities include equity plan integrations, automatic treasury pool reconciliation, a Medallion Signature Guarantee replacement, pre-planned and future-dated transactions, restricted/legended tax-lot visibility, beneficial ownership visibility for complex entities such as corporations, trusts and LLPs, automated cap table ingestion, and configurable real-time reporting. The company states its software is SOC 2, GDPR, CCPA and ISO 27001 compliant.

As of its 2026 Series A, Vinyl also markets payments solutions for compliant distributions through a single integrated workflow, with document collection, KYC/KYB controls, tax filing, audit trails and fraud prevention built into the workflow layer, supporting issuers through IPOs, mergers and acquisitions, equity plan administration and ongoing issuer operations.

Founding story

Vinyl Equity was co-founded by Rob Schoder (CEO) and Poornaprajna Udupi (CTO). According to Index Ventures, Schoder was involved in over 230 IPOs while managing portfolio operations at AngelList, where he worked with numerous transfer agents, and previously helped scale the logistics technology company Flexport. Before launching Vinyl he interviewed hundreds of public company executives, equity administrators and service providers to map the ecosystem.

Business model

Vinyl Equity operates as an SEC-registered transfer agent that delivers its services through a cloud-native, API-first software platform rather than legacy paper-based processes. It sells directly to issuers — public companies and companies preparing to go public — and also serves the shareholders and service providers connected to those issuers, positioning itself as a single operating system that connects all stakeholders. It integrates with equity plan administrators via APIs so that vested and exercised shares are issued and reconciled in real time.

Not specified in the sources beyond the company's positioning as a fee-charging transfer agent that advertises no DWAC fees; pricing details are not disclosed.

Traction

The website reports 65,000+ registered holders and 40,000+ transactions processed. At the April 2025 seed announcement the company cited more than 70,000 shareholders and customers using the platform, including Talkspace, while Index Ventures cited 50,000 shareholders. By mid-2026 the company reported a growing number of public and private clients, including Neptune Insurance Holdings, for which it acted as transfer agent after its NYSE listing.

Latest developments

In June 2026 Vinyl Equity announced a $20M Series A led by Jump Capital with strategic participation from MUFG Innovation Partners and follow-on support from Index Ventures, Spark Capital, Infinity Ventures and Cambrian Fintech. The company said proceeds would grow its engineering, compliance and go-to-market teams, accelerate infrastructure development across capital markets and corporate transactions, deepen support for issuers in private and public markets, and build systems for evolving regulatory frameworks. It also disclosed expanded payments/distribution capabilities, new equity plan administrator API integrations, and its role as transfer agent for Neptune Insurance Holdings following that company's NYSE listing.