Tracxn raises $3.5M from SAIF partners, to expand from 30 to 150 analysts

SAIF Partners, the leading venture capital firm, recently announced an investment of $3.5 million in Tracxn, a research platform for private market investors. Founded in 2013 by Abhishek Goyal and Neha Singh, ex-investors from Sequoia and Accel, Tracxn aims to use the funds towards building the largest team of analysts tracking startups globally. At present, the platform has a team of 30 analysts, and it plans to expand to 150 people by the end of the year.

What do they do? 

Tracxn captures all digital footprints about startups and combines it with human curation to provide an information platform for private market investors and decision makers. They currently derive insights through large scale data aggregation in seven practice areas of enterprise infrastructure, enterprise applications, technology, mobile, consumer, fintech, and emerging markets. They couple it with their internal sourcing and sector research efforts.

At present, Tracxn works with over 50 venture funds which include some of the marquee names in the industry. They aim to position themselves as 'Gartner for startups information'. Venture funds and corporate development teams subscribe to their coverage based on the areas they invest in.

Bridging the information and content gap

Tracxn found that there were a lot of inefficiencies in the startup ecosystem making it difficult for startups and investors to connect with each other. They aim to make it easier and faster for potential investors to understand the sector of their interest.

Co-founder Neha explained:

Today, if an investor has a thesis around “Robotics” and wants to understand what plays exist in the market, which companies are innovating each segment, none of the existing databases can solve this. We have set up a dedicated analyst for tracking this sector. He or she tracks all companies coming up in that sector, identifies the segments companies are innovating in and analyses the trends in what entrepreneurs are doing within robotics.

Others in the sector

Startups liked Mattermark, Datafox, and CB Insights are also in the same sector but Traxcn differentiates itself by providing their clients a bird's eye view of the sector before they dig deeper and look at individual companies.

Growth

The last time we spoke to Tracxn in April 2014, the startup's database covered 10 million companies (100K plus in India) and according to their website they have now reached 20 million companies. The initial angel investors included founders of Flipkart amongst others. More than half of the current team comprises analysts covering various verticals. Regarding their customer base, Neha said:

Our primary customers are VC, PE and Corp Dev. For instance, if you want to look at sectors like 'Smart Home', 'Sharing Economies' or 'Industrial Robotics' for investment, M&A or strategic partnership purposes, we are probably the most comprehensive resource available today.

Speaking on the investment, SAIF Partners spokesperson Mukul Singhal said,

We are pleased to associate with a one-of-its-kind platform such as Tracxn. It addresses a crucial pain point of information and connection in the startup ecosystem and therefore holds tremendous potential. Additionally, the stellar team behind Tracxn ensures immense promise for its rapid expansion and scalability.

Website: Tracxn