Floww – an online marketplace leveraging data to connect entrepreneurs with investors and manage the entire investment process – has secured $6.7 million (£5 million) in seed funding from a group of angel investors and family offices. This funding round included contributions from Ramon Mendes De Leon, Duncan Simpson-Craib, Angus Davidson, Stephane Delacote, Pip Baker (who leads Fintech initiatives at Google U.K.), and several family offices. The received capital will be dedicated to further developing the platform, with the goal of providing startups with access to over 500 venture capital firms, accelerators, and angel investor networks.

The company’s leadership team comprises Martijn De Wever, the founder and CEO of London-based venture capital firm Force Over Mass; Lee Fasciani, a co-founder of Territory Studio, a company known for its visual effects and design work on films such as “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “BladeRunner 2049”; and Alex Pilsworth, who serves as CTO and has experience with a number of fintech companies.

Drawing on his personal experience of completing over 160 investments, De Wever identified a need for a platform that facilitates connections between investors and startups based on objective qualities, reliable data, and clear information, moving away from a system reliant on “warm introductions” which can inadvertently introduce biases related to culture and background.

Floww operates on the principle of showcasing startups based purely on their merits, enabling founders to attract funding by providing investors with comprehensive data and transparency. The platform equips startups with a range of resources to get started, including cap table templates and instructional guides. Founders can easily upload their investor documents in various formats. Floww’s accounting team then verifies the data for accuracy and calculates key performance indicators. Each startup receives a digital profile featuring interactive charts and tables, allowing potential investors to assess the company’s potential.

Floww generates revenue by charging a monthly subscription fee to venture capital firms, accelerators, family offices, and private equity firms. Startups can utilize the platform without cost, with an optional premium subscription available for contacting and distributing their investment proposals to multiple VCs.

Floww proposes that its platform can streamline deal sourcing, customer relationship management, and reporting to investors and limited partners for VCs. This is a significant assertion, considering that most venture capital firms currently manage these functions internally. However, Floww reports having processed information from 3,000 startups and is currently expanding its reach to over 500 VCs.

According to De Wever, “The traditional need for in-person meetings in investment hubs like Sand Hill Road or Mayfair has diminished in the current environment of virtual interactions. We now require global connections that enable VCs to make investment decisions based on data and performance metrics.” He also believes that the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the need for remote deal sourcing, making a platform like Floww particularly timely.

From the perspective of startups, AngelList represents a comparable competitor. The VC-focused features of Floww incorporate functionalities found in platforms like Affinity, Airtable, Efront, and DocSend. However, unlike Floww, AngelList does not offer data or metrics analysis.