About the client:
The Client’s organization is a major insurance service provider in Europe.
The challenge:
A team from the Client’s Corporate Ventures group approached PreScouter looking to better understand the investment opportunities related to the mobility sector. The Client was working with a VC fintech company to identify early-stage investment opportunities in several markets (UK, Western Europe, Israel, US). The ultimate goal was to identify a potential software-based “unicorn” in the mobility sector that provides a solution that will be used directly by consumers or business firms. Hardware-based solutions were not considered.
Methodology:
To address the Client’s challenge, PreScouter began by identifying and prioritizing relevant market segments within the mobility sector according to their attractiveness. For each market segment, the following information was presented to help form an informed decision regarding the most relevant sectors to explore in detail in the next intelligence briefs:
- Description of segments and major component technologies
- Major market trends
- Market size and growth numbers
Based on this data, PreScouter provided recommendations on which sectors to focus on in the following intelligence briefs. These intelligence briefs identified relevant startups developing high value products and services whose profile matched the investment criteria set forth by the Client. The details provided included:
- Company description and focus
- Product and services description
- Technologies used
- Current partners
- Funding and investor history
What PreScouter found:
The goal of this engagement was to help the Client conduct an informed assessment of software-based startups in the mobility sector that could be a “unicorn” investment opportunity.
The first intelligence brief presented to the Client identified and prioritized relevant segments in the mobility sector in order to focus the target search into startups developing solutions for the most attractive markets. The PreScouter team identified 11 different markets of interest as part of this first round of outreach. These markets ranged from autonomous vehicles and augmented reality to ridesharing and big data analytics.
During a stage-gated process, PreScouter recommended the Client take a deeper dive into two of these identified markets. The next intelligence briefs provided a full landscape of relevant startups functioning within these segments.
The following results were gathered:
- For the second intelligence brief focusing on the autonomous vehicle market, PreScouter found 12 startups developing solutions in the regions of interest to the Client (Western Europe, UK, USA, and Israel). These startups operated in varying technical sectors of critical importance to the autonomous driving market, including sensor fusion, deep learning, and localization.
- For the third intelligence brief focusing on the big data market, PreScouter identified 15 startups that also met all of the Client’s criteria. These startups operated in varying technical sectors of critical importance to the big data for mobility market, including telematics and fleet management, predictive maintenance, and ticket management.
Client’s feedback:
PreScouter’s results and identified software-based startups helped the Client identify new targets for their investment round. PreScouter presented the results directly to the Client’s investment committee, and provided the Client with actionable data to assist in making more informed decisions. The client was extremely happy with the results of the engagement, and is looking to identify new research topics to collaborate with PreScouter on in the near future.
