Carta alternatives
in India.
Five India-built cap-table platforms. Carta was built for Delaware C-Corps; here are the platforms built for Companies Act 2013.
India-built platforms.
Kapitalyze
Breadth playCompany OS + Fund OS + Oris AI in one platform. Cap table, ESOP, MCA filings, board governance (SS-1), AIF management, and AI-assisted analysis.
Founders, CFOs, and AIF managers who want one platform for the full corporate-governance and fund-management stack.
₹2,999/mo (Starter) · ₹24,999/mo (Fund OS)
- End-to-end Companies Act + SEBI AIF
- ESOP tax + IndAS 102 accounting
- Oris AI clause-decode
- Multi-entity consolidation
- Newer to the market than Qapita / EquityList
Qapita
Cap-table specialistMature cap-table and ESOP product with one of the more polished employee-facing ESOP simulators in the Indian market. Cap-table-only scope.
Companies needing a polished cap-table and ESOP platform with strong employee-portal UX, where filings and AIF needs live elsewhere.
Custom (typically enterprise-tier)
- Mature ESOP simulator
- Strong cap-table edge cases
- Employee portal polish
- No AIF support
- No board governance automation
- No AI assistance
- Pricing skews enterprise
EquityList
Clean shareholder UXCap table and ESOP product with a strong shareholder-and-employee-facing portal. Genuinely good UI for stakeholder access; cap-table-focused scope.
Companies prioritising a polished employee-and-investor-facing experience, with filings and AIF needs handled separately.
On request
- Polished employee portal
- Good investor-facing UX
- Clean cap-table modelling
- No AIF support
- Partial MCA filing coverage
- No board automation
- No AI
Hissa
ESOP-focusedCap table with a heavier emphasis on ESOP grant and exercise workflows. Indian-tax-aware ESOP, but cap-table-and-ESOP only — no fund management or board governance.
Companies whose primary ask is ESOP administration for a growing employee base, with cap table as a secondary use.
On request
- ESOP grant lifecycle depth
- Indian tax handling on exercise
- Pool sizing tools
- No AIF / Fund OS
- Lighter on broader MCA filings
- No board governance
- No AI
Trica
Cap-table + ESOPCap-table and ESOP product targeting the same Indian-startup segment. Familiar feature set; cap-table-focused scope without fund-management or full filing automation.
Companies looking for a cap-table and ESOP platform with an established Indian-market footprint and existing investor familiarity.
On request
- Cap-table + ESOP coverage
- Established market presence
- Indian-tax-aware ESOP
- No AIF support
- Partial MCA filing coverage
- No board automation
- No AI
Why Carta isn't
built for India.
Delaware C-Corp lineage
Carta's data model is built around the C-Corp constructs Delaware allows — common and preferred classes with 83(b) elections, ISOs and NSOs, Series Seed / A / B with US-style protective provisions. None of that maps cleanly to Companies Act 2013, which has its own preference-share rules (CCPS, OCPS), its own ESOP regime, and its own resolution requirements.
No MCA filing automation
Carta does not generate PAS-3, MGT-14, DIR-12, AOC-4, MGT-7, or any of the filings Indian companies actually need. You'll do those externally (Excel, CS firm, or another platform) — defeating the point of having a cap-table platform that ties to compliance.
USD pricing, US-dollar workflows
Pricing is in USD, with the support team and account managers in the US time zone. Even after you swallow the FX, the workflows assume US-style fundraises (SAFE-Y combinator templates, US 409A valuations, ISO 90-day exercise windows) — not Indian SHA conventions, not Rule 11UA, not the 90-day window we actually use.
No AIF / Fund OS support
If you're a SEBI-registered AIF Cat I, II, or III, Carta has no LP onboarding for Indian KYC, no PCS-2 quarterly reporting to SEBI, no Indian distribution-waterfall conventions, no rupee NAV. This is a hard non-starter for fund managers — and increasingly, founders running operating AIFs alongside their portfolio companies.
No SS-1 / SS-2 awareness
Secretarial Standards SS-1 (board meetings) and SS-2 (general meetings) under ICSI govern how Indian board and shareholder meetings actually run — 7 clear days notice, 15-day minute-circulation rule, quorum rules under Section 174, MGT-14 windows. Carta's board module is built around US board mechanics; none of the Indian-specific timing rules are surfaced.
ESOP tax assumes US rules
Carta's ESOP module assumes ISO/NSO mechanics, 83(b) elections, and Section 409A valuations. India's perquisite-tax-on-exercise under Section 17(2)(vi), Rule 11UA fair-value computation, and IndAS 102 accounting — none of that exists in Carta. You'll do ESOP tax outside the platform, which is exactly the problem the platform was supposed to solve.
“The right comparison isn't Carta versus the Indian alternatives. The right comparison is between the Indian alternatives themselves — and the question is which one matches the shape of your company.”
If you're a Delaware-flipped startup that genuinely needs both sides, look at Kapitalyze's multi-entity consolidation. If you're an operating Indian company, all five Indian platforms beat Carta on coverage — the choice is which depth profile fits.
Questions buyers ask.
Is Carta available in India?+
Carta operates globally, including for Indian companies registered in the US (typical for Delaware-flipped startups). For pure Indian companies registered under the Companies Act 2013 with all operations in India, Carta is a poor fit — the workflows are built for Delaware C-Corp mechanics and don't generate MCA filings, handle Indian ESOP tax, or support SEBI AIF management.
Which Carta alternative is best for AIF managers?+
Kapitalyze is the only platform in this comparison with a full AIF Fund OS — Cat I, II, and III support, LP onboarding with Indian KYC, capital calls, distribution waterfalls (American and European), PCS-2 quarterly reporting to SEBI, and unit-class NAV computation. Qapita, EquityList, Hissa, and Trica do not have AIF products.
Which is cheapest for an early-stage startup?+
Kapitalyze starts at ₹2,999/month with DPIIT-recognised startups getting 50% off in their first three years. Qapita, EquityList, Hissa, and Trica all quote on request — typical landed pricing is higher for comparable scope. Carta in USD is meaningfully more expensive even before considering scope mismatch.
What if I'm a Delaware-flipped Indian startup?+
Kapitalyze handles both sides — your Indian operating subsidiary's cap table, MCA filings, and board governance on one side; your Delaware holdco's cap-table and equity issuance on the other. Multi-entity consolidation is built in. You don't need separate platforms for the two sides of the flip.
Can I migrate from Carta to an Indian platform?+
Yes — Carta exports as CSV for cap table and ESOP. We re-map US share classes (common, preferred Series Seed/A/B) to Indian instruments (equity, CCPS), reconstruct the SHA-defined preferences, and rebuild the cap table under Companies Act conventions. Most Carta-to-Kapitalyze migrations finish in under a week with a CFO reconciliation pass before going live.
Do all five Indian platforms support ESOP?+
Yes — Kapitalyze, Qapita, EquityList, Hissa, and Trica all support Indian ESOP grant-to-exercise workflows with Rule 11UA fair-value and Section 17(2)(vi) perquisite tax computation. They differ in depth: Hissa is ESOP-led, Qapita has the most mature employee simulator, EquityList has the cleanest portal UX, Kapitalyze covers the IndAS 102 accounting and Tally/Zoho reconciliation tail.
Built for India,
from the schema up.
Bring your Carta export or your existing Excel. We'll migrate, re-map US share classes to CCPS / equity, and stand up MCA-ready cap table and filings in under a week.