The Vertical Software Data Platform Built for Investors
Notoriously tedious to identify and often misclassified by traditional data products, many vertical market software companies have eluded all but the most resourceful investors.
This case study sheds some light on how the Kiosk vertical market software data platform was able to solve this problem by providing high quality and affordable data to investors of all sizes across the globe.
Outbound sourcing is something that's near (but perhaps not so very dear) to the hearts of every vertical software acquirer. On your quest to find relevant vertical software acquisition targets, you've likely nurtured relationships for many years, attended every industry conference, participated in dozens of auctions with all your competitors, purchased a myriad of data products and hired offshore teams to manually scan the internet.
While these methods have their merits (and most should definitely have a place in your overall deal sourcing strategy), we noticed that once a vertical software acquisition company wanted to scale up from several deals a year, the first few items in the table no longer gave them the deal flow necessary to support their growth. It didn't help that competition had been steadily increasing across every vertical or geography.
Like it or not, data-driven sourcing was becoming a necessity.
Unfortunately, increased volume tended to come at the expense of higher costs and lower relevance. We set out to see if there was a simpler way.
The Problem with Existing Data Products
As we explored various data products, we noticed that we encountered the same issues with every product on the market.
Poor Classification of Vertical Software
While many products provide coverage on millions of companies around the globe, they tend to do a questionable job of classifying vertical software companies.
Generic Classification
Most data products do not differentiate between vertical software and regular software and classify these companies either under a generic "Software/IT" industry, or under the corresponding industry that these software companies serve
Low Relevance in Software
Of the companies classified as "Software" or "Information Technology", only 6-7% can be considered to be vertical software
Even Lower Industry Relevance
Of the companies classified as their corresponding industry ("Legal", "Healthcare", "Manufacturing", etc.), less than 1% can be considered to be vertical software
Poor Global Coverage
There is especially poor coverage of companies based outside of North American countries which we attributed to the language barrier.
Limited Market Research
It is incredibly frustrating to perform market research as many products only offer limited exports to CSV/Excel. The poor industry classification exacerbates the issue as you cannot just do a pull of "Healthcare Software in Canada" but would have to pull:
All "Software/IT" in Canada then filter for "Healthcare"
All "Healthcare" in Canada then filter for "Software"
All in all, we did not have a good time with this experience which is a sentiment shared by essentially every M&A employee that is on the ground and actually dealing with this exercise on a daily basis.
The Kiosk Platform Solution
The Kiosk platform was created to simplify vertical market software sourcing so that everyone in M&A can spend less time digging through data and more time doing the things they love. It's as much a product for your most junior analyst as it is for your most senior executive.
How We Built It
The foundation for every company intelligence product on the market tends to be built from some combination of three major data sources:
LinkedIn company profiles
Government company registries
Company website data
The Kiosk platform leveraged all of these sources (and many others), multiple sourcing methodologies, and a set of proprietary classification algorithms to extract over 85K vertical software companies from a universe of 13M companies. As of 2023, the platform has also begun to cover horizontal software although that avenue is relatively green and vertical software remains the focus.
Global Coverage Distribution
2025 Platform Update
Since our initial launch, the Kiosk platform has expanded significantly to now cover over 200,000 verified software companies.
Total Software Companies
Global Coverage
The platform does not discriminate by geography or language - almost 40% of the companies are sourced from Europe, with an emerging presence in Latin America
Analyst Validated
Every company on the platform has been validated by one of our analysts - resulting in more relevant companies than any other data product
Continuous Updates
There is a backlog of over 75,000 additional companies - a subset of which is added to the platform during bi-annual updates
Precise Targeting
11 sectors, 73 industries and an average of 24 functional keywords per company make it trivial to locate companies operating in a specific sub-industry or having a particular function
No Export Limits
Full access to all data with unlimited exports for comprehensive market research and analysis
Proven Track Record
The Kiosk platform has already become a core part of the data-driven sourcing process for dozens of international investors headquartered in seven countries
Beyond the Platform: Custom Solutions
As the platform matured, we began to see a similar trend to what initially motivated its launch - a desire for even further customization.
Customer Requests
More tech-enabled services or hardware-related product offerings rather than pure software/SaaS
Companies offering consulting, software development, or managed services within a particular vertical
Different view of the market with their own taxonomy - whether it be more broad or detailed than our current 73 industries
Budget for 100% coverage for a particular vertical or geography
Custom industry classifications and taxonomies
Integration with existing deal sourcing workflows
Bespoke Sourcing Engine
We're happy to open up the doors and offer any vertical software investor the opportunity to build their own custom version of Kiosk that fits their exact investment mandate and views of the vertical software market.
The ability to fully customize your industry taxonomy and identify relevant companies from a universe of tens of millions of companies
As close to 100% coverage of any geography or vertical that you have the desire, time, and budget to accommodate
Insight into, and the ability to customize, our proprietary sourcing methodologies and classification algorithms
Fresh contact data
Financial data for European companies (where available)
Essentially anything else you can think of
Not a vertical software investor? No problem. Our methodologies and algorithms can be applied to any industry, any mandate, and any geography.
Ready to Transform Your Deal Sourcing?
Whether you need access to our comprehensive Kiosk platform or require a custom solution tailored to your specific investment mandate, we're here to help you find the companies others miss.