NVCA and Aumni Announce New Enhanced Investors’ Rights Agreement and Enhanced Model Term Sheet v3.0

Analyzing more than 200,000 venture transactions, Aumni gives investors and entrepreneurs free access to the latest market insights and vital deal term benchmarking.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 14, 2022

Contact: Robin Ceppos
Email: rceppos@nvca.org

Washington, DC – The National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) today released a new Enhanced Investors’ Rights Agreement and a new Enhanced Model Term Sheet v3.0 in partnership with Aumni, an investment analytics company for the private capital markets.

The new Enhanced Investors’ Rights Agreement benchmarks 13 terms, and the Enhanced Model Term Sheet v3.0 benchmarks 33, including nine new, previously unavailable terms. These Enhanced NVCA Model Legal Documents contain new 2021 analytics and are the product of the most extensive aggregate analysis of private venture deal term data.

The Enhanced Investors’ Rights Agreement and the Enhanced Model Term Sheet v3.0 allow investors to draft contracts while comparing terms against market benchmarks. Aumni validates and analyzes information from contracts executed in more than 200,000 venture transactions across a growing network of more than 90,000 investors. Those interested can download the updated model contracts for free by clicking here.

In 2021, venture capital investment activity surpassed all previous records. This growth is reflected in the current benchmarking data, allowing stakeholders to evaluate the impact on each term in a negotiation. The new analysis compares aggregate median benchmarks from contracts executed in 2021 against those from the previous five years of Aumni’s deal term data.

“NVCA is excited to expand our partnership with Aumni by releasing an Enhanced Investors’ Rights Agreement and the third edition of our Enhanced Model Term Sheet,” said Jeff Farrah, General Counsel of NVCA. “Given headwinds in the market, these products are more important than ever before. Access to critical insights and annual trends allows venture investors and entrepreneurs to negotiate thoughtfully and build great new companies. With an updated map of benchmarks, there are numerous possibilities for navigating deal dynamics.”

“In the last two years, startup and venture capital stakeholders have downloaded the Enhanced Term Sheet nearly 40,000 times,” added Kelsey Chase, Co-founder and President of Aumni. “We’re proud to expand on our offering by mining Aumni’s extensive dataset for critical insights. It’s an honor to enrich the free resources available to NVCA’s network and bring investment analysis to new legal documents and deal terms, including the addition of one of the most utilized model agreements – the Investors’ Rights Agreement.

Adam Sterling, Assistant Dean of Executive Education and Revenue Generation and Executive Director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Business at UC Berkeley School of Law, includes the Enhanced Term Sheet in his curriculum. “The NVCA Model Legal Documents are an incredible resource for founders, investors, students, academics, and practitioners in the venture capital space.” Sterling adds, “The Enhanced version of these documents goes one step further by adding critical market data.”

Background:

The NVCA and Aumni partnership was established to provide extensive market insights into venture financings by extracting terms directly from tens of thousands of executed legal agreements. Leveraging anonymized and benchmarked data, NVCA and Aumni began integrating term-specific analysis into the NVCA Model Legal Documents in 2020. Today, these documents detail the usage and frequency of specific terms found in the model document, comparing 2021 annual median benchmarks against the previous five years of venture capital data collected.

###

About National Venture Capital Association

The National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) empowers the next generation of American companies that will fuel the economy of tomorrow. As the voice of the U.S. venture capital and startup community, NVCA advocates for public policy that supports the American entrepreneurial ecosystem. Serving the venture community as the preeminent trade association, NVCA arms the venture community for success, serving as the leading resource for venture capital data, practical education, peer-led initiatives, and networking. For more information about the NVCA, please visit www.nvca.org.

About Aumni      

Aumni is an investment analytics platform for the private capital markets, focusing on venture funds and institutional investors. Machine learning and automation allow our expert team to extract and analyze data buried in dense legal agreements and achieve unprecedented data fidelity. In just a few clicks, investors access comprehensive insights into each transaction’s financial and legal positions. With Aumni, private capital market leaders can make faster and more informed decisions in an ever-changing world. For more information about Aumni, please visit https://www.aumni.fund/.