SEC Form D filings, explained
What a Form D is, when a company must file one, and how to read the fields, so a new filing tells you exactly what it can.
A plain-English guide to the public SEC filing behind every row on Takeoff Radar, and what it does and does not tell you. This is not legal or investment advice.
What is an SEC Form D filing?
Form D is a short notice a company files with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission when it sells securities in a private offering that is exempt from full registration, usually under Regulation D. It is filed on the SEC's EDGAR system and is a matter of public record. Most private US companies that raise money from investors file one.
Does a Form D mean the company raised money?
Not necessarily. A Form D reports an offering: the company has told the SEC it is selling securities up to a stated target. The filing shows the offering target and, separately, the amount sold to date. An offering can be open with little or nothing sold yet, so a Form D is a signal that a company is raising, not proof of a closed round.
What does a Form D actually tell you?
The public fields include the issuer's name and principal-office city and state, the offering's total target amount, the amount sold to date, the date of first sale, the types of securities, and the names and titles of the company's executive officers, directors, and promoters (Item 3). It does not include a business description, a website, investor names, or valuation.
How fast does a Form D become public?
Companies are generally required to file Form D within 15 days of the first sale of securities in the offering, and the filing appears on EDGAR the same day it is accepted. That timing is what makes Form D an early signal: it often surfaces before any funding press release, and many raises never get a press release at all.
What is the difference between Form D and a funding announcement?
A funding announcement is a company's own marketing, published when and if the company chooses. A Form D is a required legal filing on a fixed clock. Because the two are independent, a Form D can appear days or months before an announcement, or with no announcement ever.
What is a Form D amendment?
A filer submits an amended Form D (a D/A) to update an earlier notice, for example to restate the amount sold as an open offering progresses. The amendment carries the same offering forward, so the latest amendment holds the current stated figures.
How do I read the Takeoff Radar feed?
Each row is one new SEC private-offering filing, newest first. You can filter by state, sector, and offering-target amount, and open any row to see the filing's fields and a direct link to the source Form D on EDGAR. Every figure shown is the filer's own as-filed statement.
Where does the data come from?
Every row comes from a public SEC Form D filing on EDGAR, pulled nightly. Each page links to the exact filing on sec.gov so you can confirm the source yourself. For more, see where our data comes from.