As we saw with the collapse of FTX, the web3 space leaves a lot to be desired in terms of transparent information about companies, fundings, management and a slew of other data that really is commonplace and “de rigueur” in the “normal” tech industry. And there are far too many so-called “web3 analyst” houses that are borderline conflicted.
But, let’s face it, the Web 2.0 space doesn’t have all the answers either. Subscribing to platforms like PitchBook and Crunchbase can be an expensive business, especially for the everyday individual builder who doesn’t have access to a corporate expense account, making it difficult to access reliable, trustworthy web3 data for the average person.
After a while in beta, a new startup, now formally coming out of the gate, hopes to change this.
EdgeIn is a new database platform which it says is aiming to “level the playing field for builders in web3” to “erode Big Venture/Hedge’s advantage/stranglehold” over the market, it says.
Put simply, the platform is pulling in lots of different datasets in a familiar database format and making it either (mostly) freely available or charging a low subscription.
The web3 dataset on companies, projects and investments will cost $14.99/month, and offer real-time updates on companies, people, deals and events. Unusually, it will also offer emails of users on the platform (I’m not sure how that will play with Europe’s GDPR however).
Co-founder and CEO Redg Snodgrass told me the idea for the platform came from “scratching his own itch” in terms of a desire to get reliable data for discovery, due diligence and competitive analysis: “We spoke with hundreds of investment analysts and associates (the workhorses) and heard the same pain points over and over. Crunchbase is stale and unreliable. PitchBook is too expensive and out of reach especially for web3-specific data. Other incumbents in the space move too slow. Everyone wanted a better, more collaborative experience.”
There are currently two user journeys on the site: company and investor. The platform pulls in lots of datasets from partners such as Harmonic.ai or Amberdata, and indexes companies itself. A companies page offers “Recently Discovered” web3 projects. This is a short view of a company, plus users can tag-up companies, add a reaction or add it to a personal list.
It also displays a company index which can be filtered on funding, geography, trending, recently acquired or shut down.
An activity timeline shows events related to a company listing, such as fundraising, acquisitions, hiring events, plus the company’s team, as well as investment data. On the Investors page you can see they invest in certain tags, but a user can also contrast with their actual deals.
Finally, if users see missing data, they can make suggestions on the platform which — EdgeIn claims — can be acted upon in around an hour.
EdgeIn claims to have indexed more than 90% of the web3 market to date, and listed 50,000 web3 companies and projects, with 4,000 active investor profiles and over 20,000 builders. The company eventually plans to target generative AI, AR/VR and a few other alpha markets.
Community members have free access to around 25,000 published companies, and because anyone can provide data, EdgeIn wants to create incentivize structures for that, such as with tokens. In addition, EdgeIn will be releasing an API.
Founded by Snodgrass, Ashley Brown and Raymond Lopez, the company is currently bootstrapping and has raised $1 million from a handful of angel investors, including Mike Dinsdale (Akkadian Ventures, DocuSign, DoorDash, Gusto), Mike Borozdin (DocuSign, Google), Jeremy Clover (Circle), Capital6Eagle, Pedram Amini, Bayo Okusanya and Ulises Merino Núñez. The company is now in the process of raising a $1.5 million pre-seed round at an $8 million cap.