START-UP MONITORING: WHAT DOES IT CONSIST OF?
Identifying opportunities for partnerships , investments or development of new products or services is a key success factor for a company focused on innovation. In this context, start-up monitoring consists of:
- Detect very early the appearance of new companies in a given sector,
- Then systematically monitor their economic, financial, commercial and industrial news,
- Have a good understanding of the challenges of a sector and its developments over time.
But actually, what is a start-up?
At TKM, we consider a start-up to be any young company with strong growth potential and using or developing technologies and including disruptive potential, whether or not it has a strong need for external financing.
However, as part of monitoring dedicated to innovation, we are convinced that it is necessary to extend this definition to innovative SMEs.
Indeed, from the point of view of a large group, the latter also offer a good capacity for innovation and significant agility , while having significant industrial, commercial and financial maturity. For investors, this monitoring will provide food for thought on exit or merger-acquisition operations.
START-UP MONITORING: WHAT FOR?
Understanding market dynamics is crucial to making informed strategic decisions . Start-up monitoring contributes to your ability to map the innovation ecosystem around your businesses, by identifying emerging players, their partnerships and their activities very early on.
This mapping makes it possible to identify not only promising start-ups, but also to understand their relationships with other companies , the investors who support them and the strategic alliances that they develop.
This global vision allows you to anticipate market movements, seize the right opportunities before your competitors and adjust your strategy accordingly.
Here are some examples of applying good practices for solid start-up monitoring…
Analyze the innovation potential of an economic territory
For local authorities , clusters or clusters , carrying out a start-up watch allows you to have an overall vision of innovative companies in your geographic sector or area of interest.
This monitoring carried out on a broader scale also allows you to position yourself in the competition for territorial attractiveness , and to refine your detailed understanding of the intelligent specialization strategies of large cities or territories on a national, European or global scale.
Lead and strengthen cooperation across the economic territory
Territories play a crucial role for technology start-ups looking for new opportunities, as well as large companies constantly looking for innovation.
In the hands of a local community , start-up monitoring also proves to be a decisive tool for connecting them , creating business opportunities and promoting job creation in the heart of your territory.
Initiate collaborations
For large groups , in a logic of Open innovation or innovation detection you will seek to understand, through start-ups, the innovation trends in your markets of interest.
If we look at it from an R&D point of view, start-up monitoring makes it possible to detect new technologies, solutions to a technical problem that your teams encounter or even research into optimizing a process or a material currently used.
Optimize your investments and your holdings portfolio
For investors , start-up monitoring is an essential tool for optimizing your portfolios . By detecting the emergence of young start-ups very early, then monitoring their fundraising, the patents they file, but also their news and commercial successes, you will be able to identify and follow the most promising companies.
By having benchmark elements on similar operations carried out by other start-ups around the world, and by completing the competitive review of your current investments or targets, you increase your chances of selecting start-ups to strong growth potential .
This monitoring also allows investors to identify potential exits either in the form of partners or colleagues who intervene in rounds subsequent to yours or even to identify other start-ups for build up .
Increase your chances of raising funds quickly
For a start-up , this monitoring firstly allows you to find other start-ups with which to initiate collaborations. Usefully updating the profile of your young company in a monitoring platform also promotes your visibility vis-à-vis large groups or investors.
If you are preparing a fundraising or if you are in a strategic review, start-up monitoring allows you to have a much more complete vision of your competitors , their application markets as well as the fundraising they have carried out. and active investors in your market.
This in-depth knowledge of your sector and your competitors is essential to structure your value proposition , refine your fundraising strategy and be unbeatable in front of investors when pitching your project.
THE CHALLENGES TO BE ADDRESSED FOR EFFECTIVE START-UP MONITORING
Start-up monitoring involves several challenges that can make it complex.
The volume of information to monitor to detect it is immense and the sources are scattered across a multitude of sites. Informational noise , that is to say the quantity of irrelevant data among all that your surveillance axes report daily, complicates the task and requires powerful tools (AI) for filtering and sorting. In addition, information on start-ups evolves very quickly, quickly making the data you have obsolete.
To overcome these challenges and for your start-up monitoring to be useful without taking up too much of your time, it has become necessary to equip yourself with powerful and specialized tools.
Did you know ?
30 Billion
30 Billion is on average the number of information you would have to process each year if you decided to only monitor the sites of financial and investment professionals on a global scale...
SKOPAI: ARTIFICIAL INTELIGENCE FOR EFFECTIVE START-UP MONITORING
Skopai is a SaaS platform developed since 2018 by the Grenoble start-up of the same name and taken over by TKM in 2024. Specializing in the collection and analysis of data on start-ups , it already lists more than 200,000 start-ups and companies innovative throughout the world , in all fields.
How does it work?
Based on artificial intelligence which extracts and enriches relevant information resulting from the systematic monitoring it carries out on strategic sectors of the Web, Skopai offers an online platform (SaaS) which provides access to an exhaustive and detailed view of start-ups. ups from all over the world and all sectors.
Where does Skopai get information about start-ups ?
Skopai constantly screens the Web and captures the useful information it detects on sites dealing with current technology and start-up news: incubators or accelerators, trade shows, conferences, thematic directories, but also the specialized press, investor sites, global scientific and technological information bases, financial information sources, etc.
It is a gigantic spider's web that Skopai has woven . Its algorithms then allow it to detect all information likely to be of interest, to sort it, filter it then format it to make it accessible in a synthetic format online on your dedicated area of the platform.
Via an annual subscription , you access the online platform and, in a few clicks, you can:
- Access the global Start-up database : access information relating to more than 200,000 start-ups across all sectors and follow their news.
- Define personalized perimeters: your “landscapes”: an expert monitoring analyst engineer will help you define the precise perimeter of the companies that interest you (sector of activity, technology, geographical area, etc.). You will then have a dynamic map of start-ups corresponding to your criteria, personalized monitoring and at the end of the year an observatory of trends on your favorite subjects.
- Automated monitoring: in a few clicks, you can set up alerts on your favorite companies , on your landscapes or even on events that are particularly interesting for you (fundraising, filing of a new patent, participation in a trade show, etc.) .
Why define surveillance perimeters?
If you manage R&D for a company in the medical field, you will probably not find any benefit in monitoring nuclear or aeronautics start-ups. This is why with Skopai you can define your preferred monitoring perimeters and be kept informed as a priority on these perimeters.
This is what we call a “Landscape” at Skopai. This allows you to group together and immediately find all the information on the companies and sectors that are important to you.
Configure as many Landscapes as necessary and don't hesitate to call on our expertise of over 20 years to help you! A selection by keywords and technological fields can quickly become complex: TKM supports you.
Each quarter, you will receive directly in your email inbox a summary of the news from your Landscapes (new start-ups created, fundraising, etc.). You will also be able to add specific start-ups to your favorites , follow their news in real time and be notified of interesting information!
Simply collect and structure data
Once the scope is defined, Skopai collects data scattered across the web through various formal and informal sources. Skopai's artificial intelligence algorithms organize this data to provide a comprehensive identity map of each startup . This includes information on patents , partnerships , fundraising , and other critical data.
A visual indicator allows you to quickly assess the maturity level of a technology using the TRL ( Technology Readiness Level ) scale, but also its commercial maturity and its investment maturity level.
Share the results of your monitoring internally or with your partners
The collaborative functionality of the platform allows you to work together with your colleagues, share useful information with them, analyze it and thus feed your innovation strategies. Skopai also allows you to easily export the results of your research in Excel format , which will facilitate sharing and additional analysis work.
Carrying out start-up monitoring is essential to remain competitive. However, this task can be complex and time-consuming without the right tools .
Skopai is the ideal tool to feed your Open Innovation , manage your investment strategies, feed your R&D strategies, know your competitors or even analyze the innovative strength of an economic territory.
By using Skopai, you will not only be able to save time , but also make more informed strategic decisions .
VIEW
THE ECOSYSTEM
BE AWARE OF
INNOVATIONS
IDENTIFY THE
NEW ENTRANTS
DETECT
START-UPS
QUALIFY
START-UPS
TO WATCH
THE DEALS
Investing in a powerful start-up monitoring tool like Skopai means giving yourself the means to seize innovation opportunities before competitors and to build a solid and sustainable innovation strategy.
Do you want to get a head start?
