Finding the right investors for your startup can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack.
Traditional investor lists quickly become outdated, and manual research consumes precious time that founders should spend building their businesses.
That’s where shipshape.vc comes in—a free investor search engine designed specifically for founders who need to identify relevant investors quickly and efficiently.
What Makes shipshape.vc Different
Unlike traditional investor databases that rely on static lists, shipshape.vc uses algorithmic ranking to identify the most relevant investors based on your specific funding needs.
The platform has helped companies that have collectively raise over $1.5 billion in funding and provides access to more than 30,000 active investors worldwide.
The key differentiator is the search engine’s data-driven approach. Rather than relying on self-reported information, shipshape.vc automatically collects and indexes investor data from publicly available sources, ensuring the database stays current and comprehensive.
Getting Started: Setting Up Your Profile
The process begins with creating a fundraising search profile through LinkedIn Single Sign-On. The platform asks strategic questions about your startup to optimise search results:
Location and role: Where you’re based and your position in the company
Funding details: How much you’re raising and what you’ve raised to date
Company metrics: Revenue, team size, and current documentation status
Expansion plans: Whether you’re looking to expand internationally
These details help the algorithm understand your startup’s profile and surface the most relevant investors for your specific situation, along with relevant offers from public and private organisations that help innovation companies grow.
How the Search Engine Works
Once your profile is complete, you can search for investors using keywords or phrases relevant to your business. For example, if you’re building smart energy infrastructure, you might search for “smart energy grids” or “energy infrastructure.”
The results are algorithmically ranked based on relevance to your query, showing you which funds are actively investing in your space. Each result provides crucial information including:
Investment activity: And key facts such as whether they’ve led rounds in the last two years
Recent deals: Their latest investments and portfolio companies
Fund status: Information about new funds ready for deployment
Contact information: Direct email addresses and team member details
Advanced Features for Smarter Outreach
The platform goes beyond basic search functionality with several advanced features:
Real-Time Activity Tracking
See which investors are actively deploying capital, including recent investment activity and fund strategies. This helps you prioritise investors who are currently making deals rather than those sitting on the sidelines.
Comprehensive Investor Profiles & Contact Information
Access detailed profiles that includes publicly available contact information, co-investor networks, fund LPs, and insights into major deal backers. This information is invaluable for crafting personalised outreach messages.
Optimised Results
shipshape.vc takes information from your submitted profile to narrow results by round size, sector, and geography (pending), ensuring you’re targeting investors who are genuinely relevant to your startup’s needs.
Export and Integration
Build your shortlist directly in the platform, then export it as a CSV or an export optimised for HubSpot to streamline the rest of your outreach process.
Practical Tips for Success
Based on the platform’s capabilities, here are key strategies for maximising your investor search:
Be specific with search terms: Use precise keywords that describe your technology or market rather than generic terms
Adjust parameters as needed: Experiment with different raise amounts to see which types of funds match your target round size
Focus on lead/follow investors: Prioritise funds that can lead rounds, as shown by their recent activity
Look for relevant portfolio companies: Investors who have backed similar companies are more likely to understand your market
Check fund timing: Recently raised funds are typically more active in making new investments
These relationship dynamics require founders to think carefully about the long-term implications of accepting money from people in their personal network. While professional investors expect and can absorb losses as part of their business model, friends and family members may not have the same emotional or financial resilience when investments don’t pan out.
The Economics Behind Free Access
You might wonder how such a comprehensive tool can be offered for free. The answer lies in shipshape.vc’s business model: public and private organisations pay for insights on scaling businesses to offer them relevant services, which allows the platform to keep the search engine free for startups. These partner organisations often provide grants and relevant services to startups, creating a valuable ecosystem around the core search functionality.
Global Reach and Comprehensive Coverage
The platform covers the full spectrum of investors including venture capital firms, angel investors, accelerators, and family offices worldwide. This comprehensive coverage is particularly valuable for startups looking to expand internationally, as you can discover investors who specifically fund companies entering new markets.
Making the Most of Your Investor Outreach
The ultimate goal isn’t just to find investors—it’s to find the right investors who understand your market, can provide strategic value beyond capital, and are actively investing at your stage. shipshape.vc’s data-driven approach helps you identify these ideal partners more efficiently than traditional methods.
By leveraging real-time data on investor activity, portfolio relevance, and fund status, founders can approach fundraising more strategically. Instead of casting a wide net and hoping for the best, you can focus your limited time and energy on the investors most likely to be interested in your startup.
Conclusion
In today’s competitive fundraising environment, having access to accurate, up-to-date investor information can make the difference between a successful raise and months of ineffective outreach. shipshape.vc provides founders with the tools they need to identify, research, and connect with relevant investors—all without the cost barrier that traditionally limits access to quality investor data.
Whether you’re raising your first round or looking for growth capital, the platform’s combination of comprehensive coverage, algorithmic relevance ranking, and real-time activity tracking can help you build a more targeted and effective investor outreach strategy.
Ready to start your investor search? Visit shipshape.vc and create your fundraising profile to begin identifying the investors who are most likely to back your startup.
