As data-driven decision-making continues to become the standard across multiple industries, one company is bringing the philosophy to venture capitalists.
Floww, a marketplace designed to allow founders to pitch to investors based on merit, announced that it has raised a staggering $6.7 million to date in seed funding from angel investors and family offices. Current investors include Google’s head of FinTech in the United Kingdom Pip Baker, Angus Davidson, Ramon Mendes De Leon, and more. According to Floww, the money will be used to build out the platform and give startups access to over 500 VCs, accelerators, and angel networks.
“In an age of virtual meetings and connections, the need for coffee meetings on Sand Hill Road or Mayfair is gone,” said founder and CEO of Floww Marijn De Wever. “What we need now are global connections, allowing VCs to engage in merit-based investing using data and metrics.”
Floww charges a monthly fee to venture capitalists, accelerators, and other private equity firms to use their platform. Startups, on the other hand, have the option of using Floww’s services for free or enrolling in a premium model that allows their deal to be sent to multiple VCs. Floww then provides the startups with a suite of tools and materials to create a digital profile, with dynamic charts and tables that highlight a business’s potential to VCs. Floww also claims to handle deal-sourcing, CRM, and reporting for investors.
Floww’s claim is a bold one, especially considering that many VCs handle deal-sourcing and CRM in-house. The company also doesn’t explicitly say what constitutes “merit” in matching VCs with startups. Other than it clearly being a data-driven pairing, there aren’t any specifics as to what thresholds a startup will need to meet in order to match with a VC. The closest existing competitor to Floww is AngeList, a website also aimed at matching investors with various startups.
Whether or not Floww’s merit-based matching system will take off is still under review, but VCs willing to pay the monthly fee for Floww’s service will expect, at a minimum, that founders will have thought through these obstacles before looking for an investment.
Patrick Auger is a management consultant and entrepreneur who resides in Austin, Texas. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Business Management from Western Illinois University, and is the Founder and Principal Consultant at Auger Consulting Group, LLC. When he's not writing for The American Genius, he's writing about the business of Mixed Martial Arts for The Body Lock or learning how to cook, one burnt recipe at a time.
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