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Proprietary tech taxonomy

Introduction

Dealroom’s Intelligence Unit has developed a proprietary technology taxonomy that acts as a foundation and helps you navigate existing and emerging technologies. In tech, there are lots of nuances, and therefore we encourage you to talk to discuss your specific objectives so that we can ensure your success. Just open the chat (bottom right) or contact us.

Base structure

The proprietary technology taxonomy has the following base structure:

Client focus B2B, B2C
Income streams
Business models
Technologies
Industries
Sub-industries There are 77 sub-industries, which will appear by clicking on the above industry.
Grey tags & keywords There are thousands of grey tags. And you can search by typing any keyword and hitting enter.

To learn how it all works, go to the Getting Started section.

Soft hierarchy

You can use the filters individually or in combination. For example, when you combine B2B, SaaS, and Fintech, the platform will show you companies that meet all three criteria. 

There is a soft hierarchy baked into the structure. For instance, SaaS is more often B2B, while eCommerce & Marketplaces is more often B2C; but you can also search for B2C SaaS or B2B Marketplaces. The treemap below allows you to get a feel for the hierarchy and occurrence of combinations in the startup ecosystem.

Spotify example

For example, Spotify has the following combinations:

Getting started

You can explore taxonomy directly on the platform, via our API, or in consultation with our Intelligence Unit. Below focuses on the platform.

Advanced search

A good way to start using these filters on the platform is by visiting the platform, going to the companies table (app.dealroom.co/companies) and clicking on “Advanced Filters”. You’ll need a Premium or Premium Trial account for this. Just open the chat (bottom right) or contact us if you would like to set this up (best if you create a free account first).

Query bar

Once you get the hang of available filters, the query bar often becomes a quicker way to perform your queries. The below GIF shows how this works.

 

Keywords

In addition to the above taxonomy, which provides a structure, you can also type anything in the query bar and hit enter. This has the benefit that your search term isn’t dependent on whether or not we have manually curated the segment. Keywords work best to use only one word or a string of two words and choose specific industry terms such as psychedelic, neuromorphic, generative ai, and quantum computing.

Keyword search will return any company that has this word or (word string) in its description. This makes it very useful for discovery. If you want to know exact statistics, we recommend not to use Keywords and instead tags, and to get in touch with us.

Find emerging tech

Visualizations

To find out which categories are “hot”, it usually helps to look at some combination of growth and size. The below scatter plot does exactly that, shown on a log scale for both axes. The plot highlights many emerging categories, such as Carbon Tracking & Offset and Generative AI.

Rankings

Another way to achieve this is by creating a combined ranking (a composite of growth and size). The below table shows categories using such a method.

Impact and sustainability

SDGs

The UN has created 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and these are applied to startups that are directly tackling them as part of their core business.

The 17 SDGs are No Poverty, Zero Hunger, Good Health and Well-being, Quality Education, Gender Equality, Clean Water and Sanitation, Affordable and Clean Energy, Decent Work and Economic Growth, Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, Reduced Inequalities, Sustainable Cities and Communities, Responsible Consumption and Production, Climate Action, Life Below Water, Life on Land, Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions, Partnerships.

Proprietary Climate Taxonomy

Climate tech is applied to startups tackling the environmentally related SDGs, such as Affordable and Clean Energy, Climate Action, Life Below Water, Life on Land, etc. But in addition to that, we have applied our own set of tags, such as Carbon Removal. You can learn more about these in our Climate Tech Guide.

Deep tech

Deep, frontier, hard tech

These are containers that contain a variety of segments. We encourage you to contact us to discuss your objectives in these areas. Also, see the European Deep Tech Guide.

Deep tech includes any technology that is based on tangible engineering innovation or scientific advances and discoveries applied for the first time as a product, often aiming to solve society’s biggest issues.

Deep Tech We have created a container tag Deep Tech which includes companies in several areas such as future of computing (e.g. quantum computing, photonics tech, ai chips), novel energy (e.g. nuclear fusion, hydrogen, solid-state batteries, carbon removal), novel ai (e.g. generative AI, explainable and responsible AI, autonomous systems), space tech, synthetic biology
and much more.
Frontier Tech Frontier tech is broader, also including companies that are using these novel technologies as applications, without developing the R&D on them.
Deep Tech, plus:
+ VR, AR, blockchain, autonomous tech
+ climate tech
+ robotics, space, semiconductors
Hard Tech Frontier Tech, plus:
+ Health, Energy
+ hardware and manufacturing

Patents

We've partnered with cipher.ai to bring patent intelligence to Dealroom, along with their universal technology taxonomy, the leading classification for innovation patent filings, helping create a 360-degree understanding of innovation ecosystems and providing a deeper insight into the startups themselves.

The nine super-classes and sub-classes are listed below.

Electrical ADC & DAC, Amplifiers, Audio transducers, Cables, Capacitors, Connections, Displays, Inductors, Lighting, Motors, PCBs, Resistors, Switches
Energy Batteries, Fuel cells, Gas turbines, Hydroelectric, Nuclear, Photovoltaics, Piston engines, Wind turbines
Information 3D printing, AR & VR, Blockchain, Engineering software, Gaming, Image processing, Machine learning, Printing, Scanning, Security, Social media, Speech recognition, Storage, Streaming, UI, eCommerce
Life sciences Absorbent materials, Biological assays, Cleaning, Cosmetics, Drug administration, Food & drink, Immunogenics, Industrial microbiology, Infection & disease therapy, Molecular oncology, Pest control, Plant breeding, Stem cells, Surgical catheters, Surgical implants, Surgical robotics, Tobacco
Materials Chemicals, Coatings, Fabrics, Gases, Glass, Insulation, Liquid processing, Packaging, Polymers
Mechanical Airbags, Bearings, Clutches & brakes, Conveyors, Cutting tools, Doors, Drills, Fasteners, Furniture, Haptics, Heat exchangers, Hinges, Locks, Molding, Munitions, Pipes, Pumps, Robotics, Steering, Suspension, Transmissions, Valves, Wheels & tires
Semiconductors Lithography, Memory, Processors, Substrates, Transistors
Sensors & optics Biometric sensors, Fluid sensors, Gaze sensors, Image sensors, Infrared sensors, Lasers, Lenses, Lidar, Magnetic sensors, Motion sensors, Pressure sensors, Projection, Radar sensors, Radiographic sensors, Spectrometry sensors, Temperature sensors, Touch sensors, Ultrasound sensors
Telecommunication Antennae, Location & satellite, Optical networks, Wired networks, Wireless networks

 

Jobs and skills

On Dealroom you can also filter companies by the type of job openings and tech stack. 

Job openings

You can filter companies by the type of jobs they are recruiting for. This can be useful for job seekers. Say you want to find Backend Development jobs at Climate x Deep Tech companies. 

Below is a list of job types.

Sales & Marketing jobs Sales, Marketing & Communication, CSM & Support, Business Development
Tech & Product jobs Backend Development, Data Science & Engineering, Full-stack Development, Frontend Development, DevOps, Android Development, iOS Development, Design
General jobs Human Resources, Accounting, Project Management, Finance, Logistics, Business Intelligence, Legal

Tech stack

You can filter companies by the specific tech used by the teams. For instance, these companies that use AWS. Talk to the Dealroom team to get more granular data on tech stack data.

Knowledge partners

We work closely with industry leaders to build out each area of categorization. For example: