Vinyl Equity raises $11.5M seed to scale SEC-registered, API-first transfer agent stack

Vinyl Equity, an SEC-registered transfer agent focused on public companies, has raised $11.5 million in seed funding to expand its cloud-native, API-first platform. The round was co-led by Index Ventures and Spark Capital, with participation from Infinity Ventures, Cambrian Fintech, and other strategic angels. The company also appointed industry veteran Silvio “Joe” Conte as Head of Partnerships.

The raise backs Vinyl’s push to replace legacy transfer agent workflows that still depend on faxes, PDFs, and manual processing with an automated, real-time system. Vinyl positions itself as the first cloud-native transfer agent, offering AI-powered automation across document handling, data verification, shareholder record-keeping, and integrations with share plan administrators. The platform already supports more than 70,000 shareholders and customers, including issuers such as Talkspace.

“Register management has been marred by inefficiencies for far too long, disproportionately impacting the people largely responsible for the company's success,” said Rob Schoder, Co-founder and CEO of Vinyl Equity. “Vinyl streamlines these processes with real-time visibility and automation, empowering businesses to focus on growth and offering a seamless experience for all stakeholders.” Index Ventures partner Sofia Dolfe added that “Vinyl Equity elevates the entire transfer agent industry that has been burdened by stagnation tied to legacy systems.”

On the technology side, the company is leaning into AI and a verticalized fintech stack. “By integrating cloud-native fintech and AI, we've built a vertical platform that proactively ensures compliance and automates tasks across the partner ecosystem to replace outdated, manual processes,” said Poornaprajna Udupi, Chief Technology Officer at Vinyl Equity. “The Vinyl copilot presents timely actions, processes data in real-time, and performs reconciliations automatically, saving issuers time and money, eliminating compliance risks, and delivering a seamless, modern experience.”

Conte, who joins as Head of Partnerships, previously served as Vice President in JPMorgan’s ADR department and held senior corporate actions roles at Equiniti Trust Company and the New York Stock Exchange. At Vinyl he will manage the firm’s partnership ecosystem and help position new product lines as regulatory and market structures evolve. The seed round reflects growing investor interest in modernizing post-trade and issuer services infrastructure across Nasdaq, NYSE, and OTC Markets, where Vinyl already operates as a registered agent.