Cyndx Finder Guide for Private Equity

Identify acquisition targets

Cyndx makes finding your acquisition targets easy by providing you with two ways of searching and a landscape of potential targets at your fingertips within seconds.

1. How to search your targets?

A. Search by company

If you have the name of an ideal target in mind, entering the name of company is the fastest way to search for similar acquisition targets in Finder. If you do not immediately see the company name in the search typeahead, try entering the company website URL.
From your results, you can select the most relevant target(s) to run a new Finder search. You will see a menu to the right: click the menu located next to the carat and select the option to "See similar companies".

B. Search by concept

Finder search allows you to look for concepts with no limitations. It enables users to enter keywords or phrases in natural language to retrieve relevant results from a database, document, or system.

C. Search by Combining companies + concepts

With Finder, It also allows user to search using company name plus concept/s related to it.

To know more about searching by company, concept and a combination of the two, see here: Cyndx Finder Tour

2. How to use filters?

In the search bar, enter company(s) or concept(s) or combination of two.
Filters can be applied as you run your Finder search
See related article: Applying Filters to Your Finder Search
1. Your search can be narrowed to return companies located in a particular geographic region.
2. In order to search for non sponsor-backed companies, change the 'Funding stage' filter to None - Angel/Seed.
In the filtering column to the right of your screen, locate company details. For company type, click 'Private'.
Results displayed then filter out acquired / private equity-backed companies

Identify non-sponsored back companies

The funding stage filter allows users to narrow search results by a particular funding round. Finder search now allows you to specify a range of funding stages of a company for your desired results. By using the filters shown below, users have the ability to refine their search results to choose the right funding stage.

Funding Stage Values

Angel/Seed = Angel, pre-Seed, Seed
Early Stage = Series A, Series B
Late Stage = Series C - Series Z
Corporate = Funding is used for acquisitions, R&D, and business expansion.
Equity = raising capital through the sale of shares
Debt = raise capital through means of borrowing
Misc = other funding
Recap = used to refinance existing debt or equity and to provide liquidity to early investors and founders.

Identify companies that will most likely be ready to sell or raise capital in the near future

Cyndx allows you to identify opportunities who may be ready to sell using our "Projected to Raise" feature. This is a broad term used throughout the platform to indicate that a company is potentially in need of capital. A company may be flagged as Projected-to-Raise if they are experiencing the following outcomes over the next 6-9 months:
- Raise capital in exchange for equity
- Be a potential acquisition target (i.e. likely to sell)
- Preparing for an IPO
- Goes out of business due to distress or the lack of ability to achieve one of the above outcomes
Projected to raise is an indicator that a company is highly in need of capital and they may be likely to take their next round to funding - or be open to an exit conversation.
Example:
Result: A 'Projected to Raise' tag is displayed.
Why is "Projected to Raise" relevant and especially for Growth Equity firms?
- We often note the following significant events with companies tagged Projected to Raise.
  1. Companies raise capital soon thereafter being tagged
  2. M&A activity - The company may be open to conversations regarding an exit or ready to IPO/merge with a SPAC
  3. The company may be going through a transformative event in their lifecycle with the prospect of dramatic growth
  
  Projected to Raise is a complex indicator algorithmically driven by nearly 80 vectors. We have backtested Projected to Raise and found a 76% accuracy globally and 86% accuracy in the US*, meaning if we said a company needed capital in the near future, they either did a raise, closed their doors due to lack of capital, IPO'd or went the SPAC route.
See our P2R whitepaper for more details on this study and the mechanics of this algorithm.

Identify acquisition add-ons

Cyndx allows you to complete your roll-up objectives and find bolt-on acquisitions for a particular market segment. The platform company will start as the basis of your Finder search.

Identifying potential acquisition add-ons

Insert the name of the platform company you would like to identify acquisition roll-ups for and begin your Finder search.
Access the 'Companies' tab and then click 'Add all to list' or cherry pick companies meeting your criteria, click "Add to list" as seen on the upper right side of the results. The listed can be named and is now saved. To know more about creating a custom or adding to a list, see here:
Continue to iterate your search and add to master list. Click on a company that meets your ideal criteria in the list of results and using the menu next to the dropdown in the same row - click on 'See similar companies' and this will begin a new Finder search to bubble more describing themselves similarly.
Entity profile page tabs detail relationships, growth metrics, fundraises, acquisitions, IP, news, events, and contact data points. To know more about navigating company profile, see here

Identify a company's competitors

A quick Finder search can help you identify a company's competitors in a particular sector or theme. The 'Companies' tab after running a regular Finder search offers a holistic market map based on our algorithmic output.

Cyndx tracks companies in several different languages to help you view not only the competitive landscape in your own backyard, but also to make sure you are aware of potential threats from competitors who may exist anywhere around the globe.

Example #1: Base on similarity score result, let us see Forward Air's competitor

Company Profile Page_ inside relationships tab

Example #2: Company Patent Filings

The 'IP' tab on a company profile allows you to view published patents and see who holds similar patents. Within the 'View Similar Patent Data' is where you can access which companies hold similar patents to the company.

Note: Not all companies have patent filings.

Build a buyer's list: who are the relevant acquirers in a cohort?

After running a Finder search Cyndx Finder Tour, go to the Acquirers tab to see a list of buyers who have made acquisitions of companies listed in the Companies tab. Their Relevant Transactions in the cohort will be highlighted. Select all or individual companies by hovering your mouse over each company logo and clicking on Selected Companies to see the Add To List option in the dropdown. You can save this list to come back to it later.

Any questions?

We want you to get the most from every search.

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For quick assistance from our support team, click the Chat with Us button at the bottom right of your page and start a conversation.

Help Center

For FAQs and detailed information on using Cyndx Finder go to Finder Help Center. For additional guides on other topics, please visit our Help Center. You can access both on your profile in the top right corner.