How Future Planet Capital builds investment conviction with Tracxn
Complementing relationship-driven research with structured data, so every investment decision is grounded in evidence as well as conviction.
A global impact VC firm
Future Planet Capital backs companies across five impact verticals: Climate Change, Education, Health, Security and Sustainable Growth.
- 🌿 Climate Change
- 🏥 Health
- 🏫 Education
- 🛡️ Security
- 🌎 Sustainable Growth
Three research problems that demanded structured data
FPC does not wait for founders to pitch them. Their process starts with the full universe of relevant companies in their target markets, evaluating each one against the same 25+ leading indicators of success, based on an academic review of the literature. They work this way because manual research runs into three problems no analyst team can solve on its own.
The loudest founders win
When companies are not ranked against 25+ leading indicators of success, the pipeline defaults to whoever sends the most emails. The best opportunities are often the quietest ones.
“Computers give you breadth — they can look across 10,000 companies and compare them accurately. Humans give you depth: the judgement to pick from a shortlist of the best candidates.”Dr. Peter Mitchell, Sourcing Stack podcast, August 2026
By the time research is done, the window has closed
Funding rounds move quickly. A company raising a Seed round today may have closed and moved on by the time an analyst has manually tracked it down. FPC needs to know which companies are gaining momentum before the market does.
Limited partners (LPs) expect evidence behind conviction
Justifying a fund strategy requires structured, queryable data across the full investment universe. General market knowledge is not enough for sophisticated LPs.
How FPC built DataLace
DataLace is FPC’s proprietary platform for ranking every company in their pipeline using structured data. Built internally by Dr. Peter Mitchell, it grew from a single script into the investment system behind a ~$600M firm.
A scoring system built on multiple sources of information
Peter converted FPC’s spreadsheet into a Python-based scoring system, drawing on multiple sources of information, both internal and external. Tracxn was one of them. Every company entering the pipeline was ranked against the same data points: 25+ leading indicators of success, based on an academic review of the literature.
The scores matched what actually happened
FPC re-ran their original scores against real outcomes. Companies in the top quartile had raised up rounds or exited. Companies in the bottom quartile had seen down rounds or shut down. The data-driven approach worked.
The same logic, at scale
DataLace now runs as a full platform actively monitoring 40k companies around the world. The scoring logic is unchanged. Tracxn remains one of the structured data sources feeding it, providing company coverage, funding intelligence, and sector data across global markets.
What Tracxn provides to FPC’s research
Structured, continuously updated company intelligence that feeds into DataLace
Company coverage
Access to a continuously updated universe of companies across sectors, geographies, and funding stages , far broader than any team could build manually.
Funding intelligence
Investment rounds, deal timelines, and funding momentum across the startup landscape.
- Identify traction before it becomes common knowledge.
- Track which companies are raising and who is backing them.
- Flag when a company enters the relevant stage for FPC.
Market trend analysis
Structured sector data for forming and validating investment theses with evidence.
- Identify which business models are gaining traction.
- Back sector and stage decisions with market data, not just instinct.
- Back LP conversations with structured market data.
Independent verification
A structured third-party layer at every stage of the investment process.
- Check assumptions against structured external data.
- Give the full team a shared, consistent data layer to align on.
- Separate founder claims from third-party evidence.
What Working with Tracxn Looks Like
“Wherever we’ve needed them, Tracxn are at the end of the phone line immediately. They’ve demonstrated extreme flexibility in how we work together. Genuinely a great partner to have.”
Dr. Peter Mitchell · Director of Data Science & Technology, Future Planet Capital · Sourcing Stack podcast, August 2026
The data layer your investment practice is missing
Structured company data, funding intelligence, and market signals. All in one platform your team can build on from day one.