Introducing our improved startup fundraising platform

Finding the right fit between founders and investors has always been at the heart of ThatRound. Every application on the platform comes down to the same question: is this the right investor for my round, or the right startup for my thesis? We’ve always put a lot of work into answering that question behind the scenes, and with our latest platform update, we’ve made it much easier for founders and investors to see exactly what goes on there.

Now, when you look at an investor or a startup on ThatRound, you can see how well you fit each other and the reasons behind it, laid out clearly in front of you.

AI has come a long way, but the real work behind this update is the structure we’ve built around it, and that starts with us collecting good context. You can’t know whether a startup fits an investor’s thesis unless you understand both the thesis and the startup in intricate detail. We’ve written about how investors and founders use AI in fundraising and where it can fall short, and the biggest lesson is that AI is only as good as the context you give it. That idea has shaped everything in this update.

Fit has always been at the heart of ThatRound

What was happening behind the scenes

Since day one, ThatRound has been built around making sure founders speak to investors who are a good fit for their round, and that investors see startups that fit what they’re looking for. That work has always been happening in the background, but founders and investors didn’t get to see much of the reasoning behind it. Founders would see a list of investors and investors would get a startup in their inbox, without a clear view of why the two had been brought together.

What you can see now

With this update, we’ve opened all of that up. Our AI is informed by the in-depth investment criteria of over 100 investors. That isn’t public data. Investors have shared it with us directly, and we’ve captured it in excruciating detail, because public information is often out of date or not accurate enough to tell you who’s worth speaking to. It means the AI is working from a real picture of what each investor wants to see, so nobody wastes time having the wrong conversation. Every result now comes with a fit score and the reasons behind it, personalised to you, so you can understand at a glance why someone is a good fit. Who you choose to speak to is still completely up to you, but now you’ve got a lot more information to go off.

What’s better for founders

Build your pitch page through an interview

When you join, you’ll build your pitch page through an interview with ThatRound’s AI. It starts by analysing your pitch deck, which takes around 2 minutes, and then spends around 10 minutes scanning your digital footprint to capture as much information upfront as possible. After that, the interview takes place to confirm what we’ve found and fill in any gaps. At this stage you can pause and come back to it whenever suits you.

Everything in one go

The interview asks the questions investors always want answered, so we gather everything we need from you in one go. That means no back and forth afterwards to fill in missing details, and because it’s a one-time thing, you can get on with your raise as soon as it’s done. It also means your investor fit is much more accurate from the moment you finish.

Patrick Rycroft from LeoTrace, who found their pre-seed investors through ThatRound, put it well when he talked about our onboarding:

“In a nutshell, it was us going through and answering questions that every strong investor we’ve ever spoken to asked.”

That’s the whole point of the interview: to gather the context needed to work out whether an investor is really a fit for you. A lot of investors have very specific criteria that you’d never pick up from a pitch deck. By capturing all of this upfront, we save you the time and uncertainty of applying to investors, and waiting to hear back from them, when they were never going to invest in you.

See every investor ranked by fit

Once your pitch page has been reviewed and goes live, the marketplace opens up. Every investor is ranked by investor fit out of 100, with the strongest fit at the top and the reasons behind each score, so you can quickly see who’s likely to be interested in your round and why. From there, you can apply to investors on ThatRound straight away.

It’s early days, but since the update, founders who build a pitch page are around a quarter more likely to go on and apply to investors. When you can see clearly why an investor is a good fit, it’s a lot easier to take that next step.

What founders are saying

“The onboarding was genuinely fun and quick to do and the platform functionality is well thought out.” Veyr Fit

Patrick also said this about the conversations that followed:

“Not one of the conversations that we had [through] ThatRound was a waste of time. Every single one of them came into either an offer, term sheet or a discussion where we walked away ourselves.”

You can read how LeoTrace found the right pre-seed investors in full.

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What’s better for investors

See what matters most to you first

Every startup is scored against your own investment criteria, so you can see thesis fit at a glance. But the bigger change is how each startup is shown to you. It’s no longer the same view for every investor. If early traction is one of the things you care about most, for example, that’s the evidence you’ll see first, both when you’re looking through your deal flow and when you open up a startup. So instead of digging through a pitch page to find what you need to make a decision, it’s right there at the top.

Your investment criteria, visible and editable

You can now easily see and edit the investment criteria we use to work out your fit. If you’re already with us, your criteria have carried over, so there’s nothing to redo. If you’re new to ThatRound, you’ll set yours either on a call with us or through an interview with ThatRound’s AI, which takes about 15 minutes.

Choose how much deal flow you see

We know every investor works differently, so matching strictness lets you decide how much deal flow you want to see. Your essential criteria always apply, whichever setting you choose. Beyond that, some investors only want to see startups that fit everything they’ve asked for, while others are happy to see a strong startup that misses a preference or two. You can pick the setting that suits you and change it whenever you like.

All your deal flow in one place

If you’d like to, you can now manage all of your deal flow in one place too. From the portal, you can get introduced to a startup or pass on it from the same screen, and keep track of where every deal is in your pipeline, from Introduced through to Closed.

What investors are saying

“I’m always pleased to see one of their decks pop up in my inbox as I know it’s going to be relevant to our criteria and of good quality.” Matt Boreman

“We invest in a specific niche and find their targeting spot on so far.” Marko Bjelic, Ebico

Get started

If you’re raising, request a demo and we’ll walk you through whether ThatRound is right for your raise. If you want to join as an investor, apply to join ThatRound and we’ll get you set up with deal flow that fits what you’re looking for. We’re all about less noise, and more signal!