Growth Fund Spots Breakout Company 2 Months Before Series B

The Challenge

A growth equity fund with a fintech thesis was losing competitive processes. By the time companies hit their radar through traditional channels — banker introductions, co-investor referrals, conference meetings — the companies were already in-market with multiple term sheets. The fund had lost 3 competitive processes in the prior year where they were one of 5+ funds at the table. They needed a way to identify high-growth fintech companies before the formal fundraise process began, when they could build relationships without competition.

The Solution

ScoutedByTed was configured with a growth-stage fintech thesis: Series A+ companies, $5M+ ARR signals, with heavy weighting on traction indicators (web traffic, app downloads, transaction volume proxies), compliance hiring (signals regulatory readiness for scale), and bank partnership announcements. The Scout Pro plan provided daily emails plus dashboard access with signal history, allowing the team to track signal trajectories over time and identify companies approaching inflection points.

Results

• Identified a payments infrastructure company 2 months before their Series B process launched
• Built relationship through 3 pre-fundraise meetings (value-first: shared relevant market data and customer intros)
• Won the deal with a preemptive term sheet, avoiding a competitive auction
• Investment at 30% lower valuation than the company ultimately received from other interested parties
• Signal monitoring identified 8 additional pre-fundraise companies in the quarter, generating 5 active relationships

Timeline: Signal first detected 67 days before the company engaged a banker.