Looking at the Startup Ecosystem: Fundraising Market Map

When I look at the whole startup ecosystem right now, it seems like money is flying around in massive amounts. Investors are raising bigger and bigger funds in ever shorter intervals, and you could spend your whole day reading funding announcements on Techcrunch, LinkedIn, or other Social Media outlets.

It almost feels like everyone will get funded despite their traction or idea itself.

But working in the ecosystem for quite some time, I can tell you something. Fundraising is hard. It was, still is, and also will be in the future. Only a tiny percentage of the startups looking for capital will get it and try to make their dream happen.

Looking at the market size (in H1 of 2021, over $288 billion has been invested globally into uprising companies), it is not surprising that many companies try to build tools and resources for this market.

And that's also what I love to do—supporting founders. But in this giant black box, it is tough to navigate and understand what tools you can choose from.

That's why I decided to create the "Startup Fundraising Market Map" - a graphic overview of all companies in the market.

Let’s jump into the categories:

Pitch Decks

Your pitch deck is one of the most important things in your fundraising process. It is a presentation that you sent out to potential investors that gives a short overview of your whole business. Investors get thousands of pitch decks every year, so you have to make sure to really stand out.

In the map, you find companies that help you create this pitch deck through their tool, templates, or services. Furthermore, I added two websites that have collected hundreds of real pitch decks you can get some inspiration from.

Alternative Funding

Most funding options you will have as a startup are dilutive. This means you change equity in your company for money. But over the last years, more and more companies have been founded that are providing non-dilutive funding options. Using them, you are exchanging future revenues for money that you get now to grow your business.

These providers are especially interesting if you already have a working product with customers.

Financial Model

Having a solid financial plan for the next years of your business is essential. The model helps you put your assumptions into writing but also plan the people you want to hire and the investment it needs.

In general, you can either use one of the tools for financial planning our doing it yourself or with a financial model template in a spreadsheet program.

Documents

Before you get the money into your bank account, many documents will be sent back and forth to your investor. We collected the tools that you can use as an alternative to sending your pitch deck via email, the tools you need to sign investment documents, and the companies you can use to build a virtual data room for due diligence.

Investors

Of course, the people with the money must not be left out. First of all, there are companies that help you find investors by providing their data in lists or through a startup<>investor matching.

Secondly, there are platforms that help startups and investors set up deal structures and entities.

Because I strongly believe that there has to be a startup investor fit, I also included companies building a review layer for investors. Because in the end, you have to work with them for a long time. So better make sure you are a fit.

Education & Communities

Founders should really support each other, and I took so much from experiences shared in my career. That’s why I collected some of the best founder communities and education pages.

IRM & CRM

I always tell the startups I am advising that one of the most important things in your fundraising is to run a structured process. An investor relationship management system helps you track all your interactions with potential investors and update the ones you already have.

Captable & Equity Management

Getting your company structure and equity right is a very time-consuming task. A new breed of tools makes it easy to do that and incentivize your employees.

Data

As a founder, you need to understand the market you are in. There are several platforms that can help you in your research.

I hope you liked the map. If you want to have more content on Startup Fundraising make sure to follow me on Twitter.