Best SPV Platforms Compared: AngelList, Sydecar, Carta, Allocations, Play Money

Five SPV platforms serve US angel syndicates in 2026: AngelList, Sydecar, Carta, Allocations, and Play Money. None of them takes carry on the angels you bring. They divide on what happens next: can the platform bring you angels your own network cannot reach?

Sydecar, Carta, and Allocations cannot. Your network is the ceiling on what the round raises. Sydecar charges 2% of the raise plus a $2,000 regulatory fee. Allocations charges $9,950 for a standard SPV. Carta fits a lead whose portfolio already sits there.

AngelList and Play Money can. AngelList opens its Meridian pool above $80K and adds 5 points on top of your rate, so a Meridian LP pays about 25%. Play Money charges the angel, not the lead or the founder: 10% of each check, capped at $1,500, and the angel knows exactly what they will pay before they invest.

A special purpose vehicle, or SPV, is a single-deal entity that pools money from several angels into one line on a startup's cap table. All five platforms will set up and manage one for you.

Most comparisons focus only on administration costs. A $5,000 difference in fees is noise against a round that closes $200K short, or a founder who ends up with angels who don't add any value beyond their capital.

SPV platforms used to be judged on administration cost alone. Based on what Play Money has seen across hundreds of SPVs, they should be judged on three things: how much they help the founder raise, how much they help the founder draw on their angels' connections, expertise, and amplification after the round closes, and how much of that work they take off your plate as the deal lead.

For the angel-side view, see our comparison of angel investing platforms.

Disclosure

Play Money is on this list. Cheryl Kellond is the founder. Play Money is ranked where it actually fits: best for angel groups who want more of their members participating, for leads who need more capital in the round than their own network can provide, and for individual angels who want to invest without joining a group at all.

Play Money is not the pick for a $1M institutional raise with a pre-committed list of experienced angels who only need to complete the transaction. This post is educational, not investment advice.

What is the best SPV platform?

Each one is better at a different thing. Play Money raises the most, because it brings angels your own network doesn't reach. Sydecar is cheapest when you are filling the round yourself. Allocations charges a flat fee you can quote before you start. Carta fits a lead whose portfolio already sits there. AngelList reaches institutional LPs on a $1M raise.

How much does an SPV platform help you raise?

Sydecar, Carta, and Allocations have no angels of their own. Your network is the ceiling on what the round raises. AngelList and Play Money bring angels you don't have.

On Play Money an angel opens the deal page, reads the company story, the traction, and the terms, watches the founder video, and invests in two clicks. Play Money's $500 minimum on most deals is the lowest here, and there is no minimum raise, so someone writing their first check can join the same round as a $50,000 angel.

Deal leads and founders close 30% more angels from their own network on Play Money than through their own outreach.

Sharing the deal to the full Play Money angel network adds capital the group could not reach on its own.

A deal shared to the network typically doubles the raise.

Can you run a syndicate as a side project?

Yes, if the platform does the follow-up. Filing the entity is the quick part. About 30% of the angels a founder invites need a nudge, an education touch, or a support check-in before they invest, and on every platform here except Play Money that chasing is yours.

An administrator files the paperwork and waits for wires. Nobody at Sydecar, Carta, or Allocations is emailing the angel who opened your deal twice and never wired.

Which SPV platforms charge no platform carry?

All five platforms here charge zero carry on the angels you bring: AngelList, Sydecar, Carta, Allocations, and Play Money. Bring your own angels to Play Money the way you would to Sydecar or Allocations, and you keep every point of your carry.

The question that separates these platforms is the second one: does the platform bring you angels you did not have? Two do, AngelList and Play Money. Carry exists only on that supply, which is why it appears only on those two. AngelList adds 5 points on top of your rate, so a Meridian LP pays about 25% while the angels you brought pay 20%. Play Money's network angels pay the same 20% as everyone else in the round, and Play Money's share comes out of that 20 rather than on top of it.

Sydecar, Carta, and Allocations bring no angels, so their zero-carry position describes their product rather than a discount. There is nothing for them to take carry on.

How much does an SPV cost?

An SPV costs the lead $4,500 to $19,500 to set up in 2026, depending on the platform and the size of the raise. On Play Money the deal lead pays nothing. Each angel pays 10% of their check, capped at $1,500. This means they know exactly what they will pay before they invest.

The other platforms don't offer this transparency. Most deal leads pass their cost through to their angels pro rata. Angels don't know what they will pay until the round is filled.

One caveat on shopping these numbers. Several of the top Google results for "best SPV platforms" are Allocations-owned pages that rank Allocations first, so factor that in when you read them. Fee figures here were checked in August 2026 against each platform's public pricing.

Play Money manages the SPV for the life of the investment and charges nothing after the close. Every other platform has a point where the price changes. Sydecar adds $3,000 per extra close and $3,000 for each non-US angel or pass-through entity. Allocations' flat fee covers 35 angels and five years, and stops there. Carta will not publish a number at all.

Play Money includes rolling closes, so a founder can draw money down as it arrives rather than waiting for the round to fill.

What are AngelList's SPV fees?

AngelList charges $8K setup plus $2K state filing, capped at 10% of the raise. The platform minimum is roughly $80K for a standard raise and $50K for a follow-on, so smaller deals can't run there at all. For follow-ons the minimum drops to $50K, which matters if you're topping up an existing position.

The administration fee is charged pro rata, so each angel pays a share of it in proportion to what they invested. On a $250K raise with $10,000 of administration, that works out to 4% of every check: an angel putting in $50K pays $2,000, and an angel putting in $2,500 pays $100.

That 4% is only knowable after the round closes. If the same deal fills at $125K instead, the same $10,000 spreads across half the capital and every angel pays 8%. No angel can be told their rate at the moment they commit.

On Play Money each angel pays 10% of their check capped at $1,500, so they know exactly what they will pay before they invest.

On a $500K deal with a 20% carry, an angel you brought pays 20% of their profit and a Meridian LP pays about 25%. Source: AngelList's published fee schedule and its help center documentation on Platform LP fees.

What are the best Carta SPV alternatives?

Play Money, Sydecar, Allocations, and AngelList. All four publish a price you can quote before you commit. Carta's SPV pricing is sales-quoted, roughly $1,500 formation plus custom administration, with no public rate card.

Carta is a cap table product first. Where you keep your cap table and where you run your SPV are separate decisions, so you can stay on Carta for one without using it for the other.

Carta is still the right answer in one case. If your portfolio companies already sit on Carta, consolidating SPV administration there removes a vendor from your stack.

Which SPV platform protects your angel relationships?

The angels you bring stay yours on all five platforms: AngelList, Sydecar, Carta, Allocations, and Play Money.

Sydecar, Carta, and Allocations have no platform of deals an angel can opt into, so they never bring you a new angel. AngelList and Play Money bring new angels to your deals, and your angels can opt in to see other deal flow on the platform.

Which platform is best for running an angel syndicate?

Play Money is the best fit when the syndicate needs angels beyond the lead's own list, because sharing a deal to its network typically doubles the raise. AngelList suits a syndicate whose LPs are already committed and whose raise clears $80K. Sydecar, Carta, and Allocations administer the vehicle and bring no angels of their own.

How do you find LPs for your angel syndicate?

Play Money brings them to you. The deal goes to an angel network the lead did not build, and Play Money follows up with the roughly 30% who need a nudge before they wire. Sydecar, Carta, and Allocations administer the vehicle and bring nobody. AngelList opens its Meridian pool on raises above $80K.

Which SPV platform is best for an angel group?

Play Money. It gets more of a group's own members investing and brings capital from angels the group could not reach on its own. Sydecar, Carta, and Allocations file the entity and stop there. AngelList brings angels too, but its $80K minimum suits a committed syndicate rather than a group trying to activate its own room.

An angel group has a problem an SPV administrator doesn't solve: members who joined and never wrote a check, founders who need more capital than the room can supply, and newer angels who find the traditional process opaque. Play Money also runs a direct flow of individual angels who want to invest without joining a group at all, and those two audiences feed each other. The unaffiliated angels are the capital a group's own round can draw on.

Play Money states the offer to groups directly in its point-of-view paper:

If you're an angel group ready to get 30% more of your members investing and double the capital raised from your diligence with zero-effort syndication, this is how that happens.

• Portfolio founders get more than money. Introductions, hiring leads, and customer connections after the close are the reason a founder takes angel capital over a cheaper check, and Play Money keeps adding capability there. On an administration-only platform that work falls to the organizer or doesn't happen.

Per Play Money's point-of-view paper, the platform maps which angels have the connections, expertise, or amplification each company needs when they ask, so a founder's cap table works as a directory rather than a list of names.

One professionally vetted deal per week reaches the network, so members see a steady cadence instead of a firehose or a drought. Groups running on an administrator built for institutional GPs are asking newer members to learn a workflow designed for people who already know it.

What the network is made of is the part that matters to a lead. Play Money's data shows 80% of its angels are net new to angel investing, and a large share of them came directly rather than through any group, because they want to invest without joining one. So when a deal goes to the full network, the capital arriving is not other groups' members being recycled. It is people no group had reached, which is why it adds to a round rather than competing with it.

What does a deal lead earn on Play Money?

You receive 20% of the platform fee Play Money collects on the deal, which works out to roughly 2% of every check, paid once at close. On a $250K raise that's about $5,000. It applies to every angel in the round, including the ones you didn't source.

Your cut comes out of the 10% the angel is already paying, so nothing is added on top. On the other platforms a lead who wants to be paid for sourcing has to charge a management fee on top of the administration cost, and the angel pays two separate things.

Carry works the way it does in any syndicate. You set it, typically 20%.

Play Money takes no carry on the angels you bring. You keep all 20 points. Carry is shared only on the angels Play Money brings to your deal.

Carry pays last. It arrives only after angels get their capital back. If a deal doesn't return capital, nobody earns carry on it, including you.

Some deal leads are skipping the fund overhead entirely and running what Play Money calls a fluid fund: a following built around your taste, with money moving behind your best companies deal by deal, and your angels choosing each one.

Compare the cash against AngelList. A lead there fronts about $10,000 in administration, and AngelList takes nothing out of your carry: none on the angels you bring, and 5 points added on top for Meridian LPs. On platform-sourced angels that leaves an AngelList lead holding more carry than you keep here.

What you get instead: nothing out of pocket, roughly 2% of every check in the round, Play Money following up with the angels it brings, and the full 20 points on everyone who joined the platform through you, which keeps paying on your later deals.

What will your angels pay?

On Play Money, 10% of their check, capped at $1,500, and they see it before they commit. You can answer the question the moment an angel asks it.

On the other four you can't. The administration fee is fixed, the amount raised isn't, and each angel pays a share in proportion to what they invested, so nobody knows the rate until the round closes.

The cap means the rate drops as the check grows. An angel writing $50,000 pays $1,500, the same as one writing $15,000.

Where Play Money is not the right choice

Play Money is not the right choice for a pre-sold round of established angels. They don't need the network or the follow-up, and they most likely already have AngelList or Sydecar accounts.

Where did Assure's GPs go after the shutdown?

Assure was the largest SPV administrator by volume, by an estimated factor of ten, per Landon Ainge of Assemble VC. It announced its shutdown on November 22, 2022, and wound down by December 30, 2022. Migration cost organizers $5,000 or more per SPV, per TechCrunch's coverage, which quoted Hustle Fund co-founder Elizabeth Yin on the disruption.

Carta acquired some of the assets. Sydecar published a migration case study showing a clean transition. Allocations priced migration explicitly.

Assure was administration only, it was the largest by volume, and it is gone. That is worth knowing when you pick a platform whose only business is filing paperwork. A lead who migrated in 2022 chose from what existed then. Where you should land today depends on your priority:

Which platforms did we exclude, and why?

We ranked only platforms actively serving US SPVs with published or transparent pricing in August 2026. Excluded: Gust, which is angel-group management software rather than an SPV administrator. SeedInvest, acquired by StartEngine in 2023. WeFunder, Republic, and StartEngine, which run Reg CF community rounds rather than Reg D SPVs. OpenVC, a deal-discovery directory that doesn't run deals.

Written by Cheryl Kellond, founder of Play Money. Serial founder, MIT Sloan MBA, active angel investor and syndicate lead. Not tax advice, consult a qualified tax professional for your specific situation. Last updated: August 2026.