Paid-up capital
What Paid-up capital means, where you will meet it and what it means for your business.
DefinitionPaid-up capital is the amount shareholders have actually paid to the company for the shares issued to them, and it cannot exceed the authorised capital stated in the MOA.
If a company has ₹10 lakh authorised capital and has issued 10,000 shares of ₹10 each that the founders paid for in full, its paid-up capital is ₹1 lakh. There has been no minimum since 2015, so ₹10,000 to ₹1 lakh is common at incorporation, but the money must genuinely reach the company's bank account before INC-20A is filed. Paid-up capital rises with every allotment: a funding round, a rights issue, ESOP exercise or a bonus issue. You meet it on the MCA master data, in AOC-4 and MGT-7A, in the small-company test (paid-up capital up to ₹4 crore), and in every cap table. What it means for you: keep share certificates, PAS-3 filings and bank proof for every allotment, because investors trace the paid-up capital history line by line.