Article · 15 min read

Co-Founder Equity Split in India: How to Decide, Document, and Protect It

EquityList Free Intermediate India

This is the India-specific playbook for exactly your situation: it names full-time versus part-time commitment as a reason to weight the split unequally, and then shows you where that gets written down under Indian law (the founders' agreement plus the SHA, with vesting and leaver provisions, and the Register of Members under the Companies Act, 2013). It also tells you to build in a formal re-split process for when the part-timer's commitment changes, which is precisely the trigger you are trying to pre-agree.

• Full-time versus part-time commitment at founding is a legitimate reason to split unequally, do not default to 50/50.
• The split and vesting must live in the founders' agreement and the SHA, and be reflected in the statutory Register of Members, or investors will flag it in diligence.
• Agree a formal process now to revisit the split and vesting when a founder's commitment materially changes, so the part-timer going full-time is documented, not argued about later.