Toronto-based Hockeystick has released a database with information on over 8,000 Canadian startups and investors.
The free database includes almost 7,000 companies and over 1,000 active funders, such as angel groups, accelerators, government programs, venture capital firms, and private equity funds.
“We believe in the power of data to make better companies, investors and markets,” said Hockeystick’s founder and CEO, Raymond Luk. “The lack of accurate, standardized data has hurt the performance of the entire private market. We see a future where high-quality data is available to everyone, whether you’re an entrepreneur looking for funding or an investor seeking the next unicorn. Data has the power to produce meaningful insights, including predictive ones, and to drive better returns.”
“Startups inherently get open data because they know there’s no such thing as a successful startup in stealth mode.”
– Raymond Luk, Hockeystick founder
Luk said the model of selling other people’s data is “outdated,” and the reason for the current data gap in private capital markets. He hopes that with the company’s open data approach, they can help more companies grow in the ecosystem.
“We want to help entrepreneurs use data to fundraise and be matched with startup programs,” said Luk. “We want to help investors use data to improve their deal flow and find companies that fit their unique thesis. We should be able to understand the ups and downs of our ecosystem like we do the stock market.”
Hockeystick announced a partnership with the Lazaridis Institute in April 2017 to build a “scale-up platform” for Canada’s innovation economy — including incubators, accelerators, and startups — to share research data. The Canadian government gave $2.5 million to the Lazaridis Institute to support the creation of the platform.
Hockeystick allows companies and funds to publish data to their public record, and at the time of the platform’s launch, Luk said that the public nature of the platform would prevent contributors from fudging their numbers. “That same piece of data is going to be used when you’re applying for the Deloitte Fast 50, applying for your next round of funding, and it’s being reported to all of your investors.”
The data in Hockeystick’s database is provided by public sources including government open data, company and fund websites, press releases, and direct contributions. Luk said that part of the challenge of building an open data platform is trying to convince stakeholders of the benefits of open business data in the first place. Silos at the provincial and federal government levels also make things difficult.
“Startups inherently get open data because they know there’s no such thing as a successful startup in stealth mode. All the people building and hoarding proprietary databases should take notice,” he said.
Hockeystick will be adding new features like APIs and enhanced fundraising searches, tools for secure data management, and dashboards with real-time insights into the tech ecosystem. Partnerships like the one it already has with the CVCA are also in the pipeline.
“We just signed an agreement with the Angel Capital Association, the largest angel association in the world. So we’ll be adding deal data for over $20 billion in angel investments into Hockeystick,” Luk said.
See the platform here.