Hi Eike, Ben Legg, Philipp von Bieberstein, Jenny Varley, Conrad Young, Lorenzo Espinosa, Aditya Das, Fabio Pigo, Paul David Mather, Zarir 'Zed' Vakil, Cristian Oancea might be able to offer you some advice!

Hi Elke, I cannot really answer this question directly as I have not had a lot experience in compiling lists. I’m not sure at what level you are seeking, i.e. Seed, Series etc, but one thing I do know is you can waste an awful lot of time. The key I think is that you research investors that are engaged in your space and have the correct/aligned investment criteria. Also typical error is to go to VCs/PEs too early ( though if it is right you may find https://www.bvca.co.uk/ useful). I would say anything less than say a £2 million raise is not definitely VC and could be accommodated better by angel syndicates/networks (easy to find on Google) . As always, money alone will be troublesome if investors do not share vision as well as ARR! Sector fit, knowledge and absence of investor bull shit is a good sign. BTW none of them want to lose out so could string you out just in case. Hope useful.

P.S. You and others may also find this article/platform useful https://www.vestd.com/blog/cap-table-mistakes-to-avoid-at-all-costs?utm_campaign=Weekly%20newsletter&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=172085464&_hsenc=p2ANqtz–Ra8XjlNkH-FFZZfuT2fKGx1nSLXCGymsIDzpnKfAX8Sk7C2Z013vCOpvUO3mVpcTUokc6qu6IJFJNEb1j4YDdw7OLb8r8yF4HUeJvHm-w8QDHHnU&utm_content=172085464&utm_source=hs_email

Hi Eike – all the tools you listed are good resources for compiling inventor lists. Tracxn, Pitchbook, and Preqin have pretty steep subscriptions as they are mostly targeting institutional investors like VCs and PE funds.

If you’re looking to create a list for your own startup, you can likely use Crunchbase in combination with VC press releases and blog posts to compile a target list of investors. Pitchbook also offers a trial that you can use to compile an initial list of investors. You can always start by picking a few startups in your target industry and researching who funded their seed round (Crunchbase has this info for free). It takes a bit longer, but it can save you a few thousands in expensive subscriptions.

Hi Eike

I would suggest to go for Crunchbase Pro. The free version of Crunchbase is okay but to get valuable data you need to pay for so the Pro version is a good compromise. When I was going through that process last year, I have also considered – and seen demos of – Pitchbook, Traxn, etc….but found that Crunchbase Pro is a good compromise to start off with and you will be able to build a highly laser-targeted investor list in the thousands while saving you a ton of time