Boost Startup Deal Flow with Data-driven Insights

It is easier today to set up and scale a startup than it has ever been before – across most industries. For companies, this presents both a challenge and an opportunity. The globally distributed nature of startup activity means it is harder for companies to track emerging trends in their industry. On the other hand, innovations coming from startups can help companies further their advantage. This is why many companies have startup deal flows to routinely source partners, vendors, or customers.

Finding the most relevant startup for any innovation goal is difficult, especially so when each startup claims to change the world. Data-driven insights help innovation managers separate the wheat from the chaff. For example, our Big Data & Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered StartUs Insights Discovery Platform scans firmographic data on over 2,5 million startups. This allows us to identify the most relevant startups for your innovation goals.

How Data Improves Startup Deal Flow

Provides Detailed Insights

Information on startups is scattered across the internet in the form of structured and unstructured data. Some sources of startup information include startup websites, social media, industry reports, databases, patent records, and financial documents. Data-driven solutions translate this wealth of firmographic data into actionable insights for your build-buy-partner strategy.

When looking for startups to work with, data-driven tools allow you to quickly narrow down your search. They allow you to select startups that match a range of criteria such as maturity, location, and age, among others.

Identifies Emerging Industry Hubs by Location

Today, emerging technology centers are emerging globally that are disrupting conventional and newer industries. For instance, the Swiss town of Zug is rapidly emerging as the blockchain capital of the world, whereas Stockholm is a global leader in cleantech startups. If the history of innovation is any indication, emerging cities will attract significant capital and talent. Working with startups from these areas can supercharge your innovation strategy.

Data-driven startup deal flow allows companies to monitor startup activity in specific regions of interest. This allows you to stay ahead of the technology curve by collaborating with high-potential startups from these areas. Another reason companies want to identify startups from particular regions is when they are looking to expand into those markets.

Find Similar Startups

When Netflix recommends a movie based on the ones you already like, it uses a knowledge graph and semantic search to do so. These allow the recommendation engine to quickly filter similar movies from the thousands of movies on their platform. Looking for the most relevant startups for your deal flow is a similar challenge and requires a similar strategy. Only, there are millions, not thousands, of startups to go through and the data is harder to find.

By turning abstract firmographic data into a searchable knowledge graph, data-driven tools allow you to find startups that are similar to the ones you already work with. For example, the StartUs Insights Discovery Platform shows similar companies within seconds of hitting search. This saves you days, if not weeks, of time in searching for relevant companies, leaving you with more time for vetting them.

Monitors Growth of a Company

If you’ve finally narrowed down to startups you’d like to partner with, you want to be sure that it’s the startups that will last long. For example, if you’re sourcing a B2B SaaS product that you will train your employees to use, you’d want the startup that builds the product to still be there in the next 5 years. However, the portrait you have of the startup only reveals how they are doing today.

This is where data-driven tools can help you. By validating the startup’s growth and activity at multiple levels, they provide you insights into its long-term success prospects, including in the face of changing macro trends. Conversely, they also look into their past and see if the startup has a sustainable business model.

Benefits of Data-driven Startup Deal Flow

1. Saves time: Brings down the time required for identifying, screening, and validating startups from months to days.
2. Saves costs: Reduces the need for physical visits to startup locations as well as lowers expenses related to an extensive, manual search.
3. Enables continuous monitoring: Allows companies to constantly monitor the startup landscape, ensuring that they do not miss any disruptive trends.
4. Data-backed projections: Provides growth projections that allow companies to pick winners from the pool of high-potential startups.

Elevate Your Startup Deal Flows with Data

A data-driven approach takes the hassle out of scouting startups for your deal flow. It gives you actionable insights from billions of data points from disparate sources. The StartUs Insights Discovery Platform analyzes data on startups and scaleups to provide you with data-rich insights. Depending on your innovation goals and requirements, we offer a range of deliverables for your startup deal flow process. Some of these include:

• Startup Database: Covers hundreds of relevant startups that match your innovation goals.
• Technology Map: Visualizes emerging technologies and their applications in your industry of interest.
• Technology Report: Provides firmographic data and insights on highly relevant startups, scaleups, and the technologies they develop.

Analyzing firmographic data provides detailed insights that allow you to pick the best startups from a pool of candidates.

Want to learn how we at StartUs Insights identify the most relevant startups that match your innovation agenda? Get in touch for a free consultation.