Entities

In Dealroom, we track tech companies that are designed for rapid growth.

We classify such companies based on the following characteristics:

• Scalable by design: The company has the potential to achieve high growth by leveraging a scalable product, platform, or business model.

• Founded after 1990

• Innovative by nature: The product and/or business model is innovative. In most cases, the company is tech-enabled, either through proprietary technology/software or business processes that are heavily supported by technology.

In other words, the companies we track are venture-backable companies. Companies that do not meet these criteria may still appear in Dealroom and are typically tagged with our Outside Tech label.

Based on the above, we further categorize companies as follows:

A company which has known backing from PEs, VCs, angels, grants, or is affiliated with an accelerator or university. Funded companies can fall into the following categories:

VC Backed

A company that has received venture-style equity backing from venture capital or private equity firms, typically in exchange for ownership stakes and accompanied by active investor involvement such as board participation, strategic guidance, and growth oversight. VC-backed companies are generally focused on rapid growth and scale, with the expectation of a future exit through acquisition or public listing.

Non-VC-backed company

A company with no known venture-style equity backing from venture capital or private equity firms. These companies may still have raised alternative forms of capital, such as post-IPO equity, non-VC growth equity, corporate support programs, or public funding, and are therefore not classified as VC-backed

Unfunded company

A company with no known external backing from PEs, VCs, angels, or grants, and no known affiliation with an accelerator or university. These companies are typically self-funded or bootstrapped and do not include exited companies (e.g. acquisitions or buyouts).

Startup & Scaleup

“Startup” and “scaleup” are commonly used terms by Dealroom users to refer to the companies tracked on the platform. They are often used in our reports and communications to differentiate between earlier-stage and later-stage companies in terms of growth. While these definitions are no longer applied rigidly within the platform, they remain helpful as general reference points.

• Startup: A company with fewer than 50 employees.

• Scaleup: A company in a growth phase, typically characterized by increasing revenue and more than 50 employees.

Growth stage rules:

Corporate

E.g: Preply

Companies founded after 1990 are labeled as 'corporate' (without the 'mature' tag, given their founding date) as soon as they make investments in other companies, for example. 

Mature

E.g: multinational corporations, Goldman Sachs.

Companies founded before 1990, which tend to be large multinational enterprises and have reached the mature stage of its life cycle through its development, expansion, or acquisition of other companies are labeled as both 'mature' and 'corporate', for example.

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

A company providing services to other companies on a project basis. Under service provider you'll find the following industries: consulting, digital services, financial advisory, legal services and recruitment.

People

Include angel investors, founders, employees, and users. A people entity that makes various investments into companies is considered as an Individual Angel investor.
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Universities

Educational institutions.
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Governments and Non-Profits

Government agencies and non-profit organisations.
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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” companies.
At the moment in Dealroom they are companies with the outside tech and spac tags.

Crowdfunding

Platforms for equity crowdfunding. Example Seedrs.

Workspace

A company that provides a working environment. Example Designtech.