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Glossary
- Accelerator
- A program that takes a cohort of early companies for a fixed period, usually in exchange for equity. Accelerators are one of the investor types in the investor file, and each one that backs enough companies gets a startup list page of its own.
- Angel group
- A group of individual investors who pool money and diligence and invest together. Recorded as one entry, separate from the individual angel investors in it.
- Angel investor
- An individual who invests personal money in early companies. Recorded as a named person rather than an organization.
- Convertible note
- Debt that converts into equity at a later round instead of being repaid in cash. Carried as both a round type on a company and an investment stage on an investor.
- Corporate venture capital
- An investment arm owned by an operating company, investing the parent company's money. Recorded as an organization with its own entry, not folded into the parent.
- Exit
- A recorded acquisition or public listing of a company an investor backed. The exit count on an investor counts what the source records, not every exit that happened.
- Family office
- A firm that manages one family's capital, some of which goes into private companies. One of the investor types.
- Fund of funds
- A fund that invests in other funds rather than directly in companies.
- Funding stage
- Where a company sits in its round sequence: pre-seed, seed, Series A, Series B, Series C, or Series D and later. Carried on the company, and distinct from the investment stage carried on an investor.
- Headcount band
- A range rather than an exact employee number, for example 11 to 50 or 251 to 500. Company profiles publish the band, so the file carries the band.
- Incubator
- A program that houses and supports companies at the idea stage, often without the fixed cohort and demo day of an accelerator.
- Investment stage
- The stage an investor writes cheques at: seed, early stage venture, late stage venture, private equity, debt and others. An investor can carry several, so stage counts add up to more than the number of investors.
- Investor type
- What kind of investor an entry is: venture capital firm, angel investor, private equity firm, micro VC fund, accelerator, family office and others. An entry can carry more than one type.
- Lead investor
- The investor that sets the terms of a round and usually puts in the largest cheque. Counted separately from total investments on an investor entry.
- Micro VC
- A venture fund small enough that it writes seed cheques out of a fund in the low tens of millions. Recorded as its own investor type rather than as a venture capital firm.
- Pre-seed
- The round before seed, usually the first outside money a company takes.
- Private equity firm
- A firm that buys control or large minority stakes in established companies, often with debt. Present in the file because many also appear on late stage venture rounds.
- Round type
- The label on the most recent round a company raised: pre-seed, seed, angel, Series A through Series F, venture round, convertible note, debt, grant, corporate round, private equity or secondary.
- Secondary market
- Buying existing shares from an earlier holder rather than new shares from the company. No new money reaches the company.
- Seed
- The round that funds a first product and a first team, before a Series A.
- Syndicate
- A group that invests deal by deal, with backers opting in to each deal rather than committing to a fund.
- Total raised
- The sum of a company's recorded rounds in US dollars. Rounds raised in other currencies are converted by the source, not here.
- Unicorn
- A private company recorded at a valuation of one billion dollars or more.
- Venture capital firm
- A firm that raises a fund from outside backers and invests it in private companies for equity. The largest investor type in the file.
- Venture debt
- Loans made to venture backed companies, usually alongside or between equity rounds.