Before you begin, make sure your Articles of Association are suitable for growth shares, you have a hurdle valuation in place, and you have authorised a growth share pool.
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Getting started
Log in to Vestd and navigate to Share schemes > Growth shares via your homepage or side navigation bar.
This will take you to your growth share dashboard — your central hub for all growth share activity on Vestd.
Scheme templates
You’ll see a box titled 3. Scheme templates.
How to create a new growth share scheme
Click Create new template to begin designing your scheme. If this button is not visible, you need to authorise a growth share pool first (see our guide).
You'll be taken to the growth share scheme builder, where you can customise the scheme to fit your requirements: how shares vest, any criteria recipients must meet, vesting frequency, and more.
How to view existing growth share schemes
Click View all to see every Growth Share scheme you've created. 
Your schemes are grouped into three statuses: In progress, Edit, and Locked.
In progress Schemes are schemes you've started but haven't finished setting up, you might still have questions to answer about scheme setup, vesting conditions etc. Click Continue to pick up where you left off.
Note: Clicking Confirm scheme at the end of the scheme builder doesn't send invites or activate the scheme. Your scheme stays in draft until you invite recipients.
Draft Schemes are schemes where you've completed the scheme builder but haven't invited recipients yet, so the scheme is still in draft. From here you can either:
- Click Edit to keep refining the scheme, or
- Click the scheme name (e.g. April 2026 share scheme) to go to the add recipients’ page, enter the recipients information and send out the growth share invites.
Locked schemes are live schemes where recipients have been invited and the scheme is active.
Tip: To base a new scheme on an existing locked one, click Duplicate. This copies the scheme's rules (vesting schedule, criteria, etc.) so you don't have to start from scratch.
Adding recipients
Once the scheme is created, you'll land on the recipients page. This is where you add the people or companies receiving growth shares.
1. Start by selecting the hurdle rate — you'll see the date it was completed, the share class, and the hurdle rate itself.
2. You can create new recipients or add existing ones already stored on Vestd (for example, if they've been added to other share schemes).
3. Enter the vesting start date, then select whether the recipient is an individual or a company.
Individual:
Enter their first name, last name, email address, number of growth shares,
whether they are an employee or director, country of residence, and tax/NI number.
There is also a unique identifier field if you'd like to reference the recipient by another means, such as a payroll number.
Corporate: Enter the company name, the email address of the company representative, number of shares, and unique identifier.
4. Click Save as draft and add another to continue adding recipients.
5. A green banner will confirm each addition.
6. You can review all recipients at the bottom of the page and click Edit to make changes or remove anyone. To delete the entire scheme and all recipients, click the red Delete button at the bottom of the page.
Sending invites
When you're ready to proceed, click Send invites at the top of the page. You'll be taken to a preview screen showing the invitation email each recipient will receive. Use the dropdown to select individual recipients and preview the personalised email they'll receive.
You can select recipients individually, choose Select all, or use Select none to adjust your selection.
Preview the invite email
Before hitting send, you can preview exactly what your recipients will receive. Switch between recipients in the preview to check how the email looks for each person (handy if the content varies based on their award details).
When you're happy, click Send invites. A green banner will confirm that invites have been sent.
Your dashboard
Head back to Share schemes > Growth shares at any time to view your live and draft growth share agreements.
Click View all to see all growth share agreements.
On draft agreements, click View then Send invite to send when ready. On live agreements, you can view the vesting schedule.
Need support?
If you have any questions, our dedicated Customer Success team is here to help: support@vestd.com
Not onboard yet? Hop on a call.
Our team, content and app can help you make informed decisions. However, any guidance and support should not be considered as 'legal or financial advice'.