Morgan Stanley Startup Deals & Discounts

The startup program makes Morgan Stanley at Work's equity and cap table platform accessible to qualifying early-stage and growth companies at a meaningfully reduced cost on the annual license and onboarding, rather than at the standard institutional rate. It is positioned for founders who have moved past managing ownership in a spreadsheet and want a single real-time system for their cap table, grants, valuations, and equity reporting before a priced round or audit forces the issue.

Eligibility is application-based and generally aimed at venture-backed or incorporated private companies that are still scaling their equity plan, often surfaced through accelerator, investor, or partner channels. Approved companies get the same core administration capabilities used by larger clients at startup-friendly economics, which lowers the barrier for a team that needs audit-ready records but cannot justify full enterprise pricing yet. The value is both financial and structural: clean ownership data from the start reduces the cleanup and legal cost that tends to compound as headcount, grant types, and investors multiply over time.

Moving off spreadsheets. A growing startup whose cap table has outgrown a shared spreadsheet consolidates ownership, grants, and share classes into one real-time system before errors compound.

Preparing for a priced round. Founders model dilution, option-pool top-ups, and new-investor scenarios so they walk into a financing with defensible numbers.

Passing an audit. Finance teams produce ASC 718 or IFRS 2 stock-based-compensation reports and pair them with 409A valuation support for audit-ready records.

Scaling equity comp. As headcount climbs, HR and finance issue option and RSU grants with online agreements and give employees a self-service portal to track vesting.

Heading toward IPO. Late-stage private companies use the platform - and its Carta collaboration - to transition equity administration as they go public.

Morgan Stanley at Work does not publish a standard rate card for its equity platform. Pricing is quoted per company and generally scales with the number of active equity holders, the complexity of the plan (number of equity plans, grant types, and jurisdictions), the service tier, and optional modules such as valuation support or advanced reporting.

• Startup Edition - lighter, self-serve tooling aimed at earlier-stage companies getting their equity plan and cap table right from the start.
• Private-company platform - full cap table, equity administration, modeling, and accounting for growth- and late-stage private companies, quoted by participant band.
• Public-company platform - equity administration for companies that have gone public, often after transitioning from a private-company setup.

The startup program applies a reduced rate on the annual license and onboarding for qualifying companies. Exact figures are confirmed during the application and quoting process.