Startup
A company designed to grow fast (either developing tech or using tech to operate its business).

Check out our blog post on “what is a startup” for more information.

Scaleup
A startup in its growing phase (Growing revenue and over 51 employees)

Corporate
A company having reached the mature stage of its life cycle, through its development, expansion, or acquisition of other companies.

Investor
An entity or individual investing capital in companies (including investment funds (angel funds, VC. PE), Family offices, CVC, Corporates, Angels).

Crowdfunding

Platforms for equity crowdfunding e.g. Seedrs.

New Funds

According to Investopedia: "An investment fund is a supply of capital belonging to numerous investors used to collectively purchase securities while each investor retains ownership and control of his own shares".
​At Dealroom, we keep track of some of the different types of funds: venture capital, private equity, growth equity, life sciences, renewables, and corporate. An illustrative example is the following:

A fund is closed when all the money has been invested. For VC firms, the process of raising capital is known as fundraising. In addition to Venture Capital funds, we also track Private Equity, Growth Equity, Corporate, Life Sciences, Renewables, and Other fund types.

SPAC
A company created specifically to pool funds in order to finance a merger or acquisition opportunity within a set timeframe. The opportunity usually has yet to be identified. SPACs are a subset of “blank check” company.

Service Provider
A company providing services to other companies on a project basis.

People
Include angel investors, founders, users.

Universities
Educational institutions.

Governments and Non-Profits
Government agencies and non-profit organisations.

Events
Tech conferences and events.

B2B (Business)
Companies whose customers are mainly or only other businesses.

B2C (Consumer)
Companies whose customers are mainly or only individual consumers.

eCommerce & Marketplace
A place connecting a buyer(s) and seller(s) where goods or services are bought, sold or exchanged.

Manufacturing
The making of goods by hand or by machine that upon completion the business sells to a customer.

SaaS
Software-as-a-Service, a method of software delivery and licensing in which software is accessed online via a subscription, rather than bought and installed on individual computers.

Advertising
Monetary income that individuals and businesses earn from displaying paid advertisements on their websites, social media channels, or other platforms surrounding their internet-based content.

Commission
Refers to fees earned in making a sale or closing a deal.

Subscription
A periodic (monthly, quarterly or yearly) fee paid by the customer to access a service or product

Websites with a pricing page are usually subscription-based.
Ex: SaaS businesses, membership fee.

ACCELERATORS: fixed-term, cohort-based programs that include seed investment, connections, sales, mentorship, educational components, and culminate in a public pitch event or demo day to accelerate growth.
​Example: Y Combinator

ANGELS: individuals who provide capital for a business start-up.
​Example: Marc Benioff

CORPORATES: large companies investing in startups.
​Example: Amazon.com

VENTURE CAPITAL: These are investment funds that manage the money of investors who seek private equity stakes in startups and small- to medium-sized enterprises with strong growth potential.
​Example: LocalGlobe

PRIVATE EQUITY: private equity funds more closely resemble venture capital firms in that they invest directly in companies, primarily by purchasing private companies, although they sometimes seek to acquire a controlling interest in publicly traded companies through stock purchases.
​Example: KKR

FAMILY OFFICE: are private wealth management advisory firms that serve ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) investors.
​Example: Talis Capital

GOVERNMENT NON PROFIT:
Example: European Investment Bank

ADVISOR: it refers to investment banks and financial advisory firms that invest into startups.

GRANT: it is a financial award given by governments, international institutions, universities etc. It is like a gift as the grantmaker won’t receive equity or payment back. For example, the European Innovation Council (EIC) has given grants to many startups.
​
​ANGEL: when only angel investors made the investment

Disclaimer: The following ranges are used to standardize rounds based on the funding amount. This approach is adopted in custom reports. As a result, the company’s self-reported round type could differ from the one entered using this standardization.

SEED: for $1-4M deals, when the round happened 0-2 years after the company’s foundation
​SERIES A: for $4-15M deals
​SERIES B: for $15-40M deals
​SERIES C: for $40-100M deals
​Megarounds: for $100-250M deals
​Megaround+: for $250M+ deals

​EARLY VC: when the round type is not mentioned and the amount is between 2 and 20 million
​LATE VC: rounds type not mentioned after Series A,B...or Round happening 5 years after launch date

​GROWTH EQUITY: a $100M+ investment in a fast growing company mostly a mix of primary+secondary. the investor is a private equity, growth equity, VC and/or corporate. Not every $100M+ round is GE round. It could be self-reported as Series A,B,C+ etc.

​ACQUISITION: majority stake (50-100%), acquired, controlling stake, (acquisition amount = valuation if no mention of stake %). Generally, we add the transaction when the acquisition is announced. If it does not go through, we remove it. Once it’s finalized we can update the transaction date.

​BUYOUT: 30-100% Acquisition by Private Equity firms, BUYOUT mentioned

​MERGER: is a fusion of two companies into one new legal entity agreed on generally equal terms. For example, Daum Communications and Kakao Inc. merged in 2014. Once added, a merger transaction will be displayed on both companies' profiles.

​DEBT: it is defined as money borrowed by one party to another, with the arrangement to be paid back at a later date, usually with interest. Startups & Scaleups choose to opt for this option as it might be cheaper than issuing stock in certain industries (real estate, manufacturing, for example).

​CONVERTIBLE: convertible notes, convertible loans

​LENDING CAPITAL: working capital for platforms providing lendings and mortgages. These startups require a wide amount of working capital to lend which is often provided by banking partners (ex: LendInvest, Duologi)

​MEDIA FOR EQUITY: when a media group provides a communication/advertising campaign in exchange for shares in the startup

​PRIVATE PLACEMENT: add when the private placement type is explicitly mentioned and the company is public. This round type is more common in the US. It has a specific meaning, and is never public money: a publicly listed company sells shares privately (not via stock market) to hand-picked individuals (usually family offices, individuals, institutional investors, not government).
Private placement is almost always present in the case of SPACs IPOs (Example).

​ICO: more info can be found here
​IPO: more info can be found here
​POST IPO EQUITY: A post IPO equity round takes place when firms invest in a company after the company has already gone public.
​POST IPO DEBT: A post IPO debt round is a transaction when corporates loan a company money after the company has already gone public. Similar to debt, a company promises to repay the principal as well as added interest on the debt.
​POST IPO CONVERTIBLE: A post IPO convertible round takes place when a company receives a convertible round after the company has already gone public.

​SECONDARY: 0-20% ownership by investing through buying shares from existing investors
​SPAC IPO: this round represents the merger between the SPAC vehicle and the company going public and the company public listing. It is therefore implemented as an IPO but with “investor” the SPAC company. (Example).

Note: The ownership percentages (e.g Secondary, Buyout) are indicative.

​SPINOUT: Spinouts are startups where universities have equity and/or royalty/licensing deals. The terms Spinout and Spin-off have the same meaning. We use the term Spinout. We count a startup as Spinout if there’s a reliable source, like a university site, the company LinkedIn profile, trusted news source, etc. mentioning it’s a “spin-off” / “spinout” or mentioning that the company was created using the technology developed at a University/Research Center. Our definition of Spinout does not cover corporate spinouts (companies that have spun out of large corporates like Samsung, Toyota, etc.). Startups that do not follow this condition, should not be counted as Spinouts. For example, the source mentioning that the company was founded by the Oxford University alumni is not enough to count the startup as a Spinout. Similarly, the source mentioning that the company is a University startup or a startup incubated at the University, is not enough to count this startup as a Spinout.

At Dealroom, we use fixed currency rates which are the following:

Unicorn

Companies founded since 1990 that reached USD $1 billion valuation. Also includes companies that have since dropped below the $1B mark after going public.

Sometimes represented as EUR 800M, which is a rounded version of USD 1B.

​Future unicorn
​Fast-growing companies with valuations between USD $250M-$1B

Sometimes represented as EUR 200-800M, which is a rounded version of USD 250-1B.

Some queries, like the ones present in European Startups, are tailored towards more ‘recent’ future unicorns. In fact, the ‘last funding year minimum’ filter is also applied on top of the valuation range. They also exclude acquired and publicly owned companies.

Founder ranking

We have created an algorithm to determine the propensity for success of startup and scaleup founders. You can apply these filters in the Advanced filters section of the Startups & scaleups tab or the New startups tab.

Funding rounds
​Excludes Grant rounds and rounds for companies with an "outside tech" model

Exit

An exit occurs when an investor decides to liquidate their stake in a company. In Dealroom, Exits are a subset of all transactions, grouped in a specific Exits tab. Buyouts, M&A, secondary rounds, and IPOs are treated as exits.

​Ecosystem value
​Sum of the valuations of all startups in the ecosystem. Using estimated valuations based on most recent VC rounds, public markets and publically disclosed valuations.

​Zebra
​“These are companies that, instead of seeking to blitz-scale their way to market dominance, fuelled by multiple venture capital fundraising rounds, prioritise profitability. Zebras also tend to be focused on equitable ownership and building sustainable businesses, and they seek to create a positive social impact, for example by providing solutions for underserved markets or prioritising employee happiness” (Source).

Snowball effect/ Startup Mafia/ Founder Factories
​Early tech ecosystem success not only creates value and belief for a community but breeds a generation of operators who know how to start and scale successful businesses, who have the right network and at times the exit capital to start their next venture. It starts a snowball effect of success. Most famously in the US, the founder and first-hire alumni of the "PayPal Mafia" went on to found Tesla, LinkedIn, Palantir, SpaceX, Square, Slide, Kiva, YouTube, Yelp, and Yammer. Others would go on to invest in countless West Coast success stories, including PayPal founder Peter Thiel, who invested in Facebook when it still had a 'the'. These are the European Startup Mafias. The training grounds that became the founder factories fuelling the European startup ecosystem. Check this landscape for some examples.

Dealroom’s Intelligence Unit has developed a proprietary technology taxonomy that acts as a foundation and helps you navigate existing and emerging technologies. You can access the complete guide below: