Subscription Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE)

Linklaters Italy provides founders and investors of startups with a “Subscription Agreement for Future Equity – Discount only”, an off-the-shelf template for an agreement for funding the initial steps of an innovative company.

Linklaters Italy created the “Subscription Agreement for Future Equity – Discount only” in collaboration with the Italian Tech Alliance, Growth Capital, and Portolano Cavallo, with the aim of making available to founders and investors a contractual arrangement in the spirit of the Y-Combinator‘s post-money SAFE that would be in compliance with the Italian legal system and the practices of the Italian venture capital market.

Specifically, the “Subscription Agreement for Future Equity – Discount only” enables investors to pay in advance the subscription price for company shares/quotas (typically pre-seed and seed funding) with such shares/quotas to be issued by the company receiving the investment at a later date, so that valuation of the company is postponed to a more mature stage.

Ready to use

With a click, founders can download the “Subscription Agreement for Future Equity – Discount only” and leverage this highly standardised template and a globally recognised instrument to raise funds quickly. To enter into the “Subscription Agreement for Future Equity – Discount only” and formalise the investment, parties simply fill in the template, agree on very limited, largely economic terms, and then sign the agreement.

On this page you can find the form in English of the “Subscription Agreement for Future Equity – Discount only” and the form in Italian of the “Contratto di sottoscrizione di futuro aumento di capitale – con sconto” and a spreadsheet* (in English and in Italian) to help founders and investors in understanding the calculations underlying the allocation of shares/quotas under the “Subscription Agreement for Future Equity – Discount only” / “Contratto di sottoscrizione di futuro aumento di capitale – con sconto”.

*The spreadsheet is a dynamic generator that can be used for a better understanding of the economic terms to be included in the “Subscription Agreement for Future Equity – Discount only” / “Contratto di sottoscrizione di futuro aumento di capitale – con sconto” and is therefore for illustrative purposes only. Linklaters can't be held responsible for the accuracy of the data that are therein contained and for those that would be then used as attachment to the “Subscription Agreement for Future Equity – Discount only” / “Contratto di sottoscrizione di futuro aumento di capitale – con sconto”