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A vast majority of venture investments are based on a pattern matching thesis. When evaluating companies, investors often start with an important question: has this category produced great returns before? This is also partly why truly innovative companies without prior comparables often struggle to raise capital in the early years.

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Use Cases of Similar Companies

Investors that have already backed a company in a given operating space are typically likely to see the market opportunity favourably. Conversely, for some crowded markets with high failure rates, investors that have made a prior investment may be more reluctant to consider an investment in the same space. Finally, in some competitive spaces, if a similar company is a direct competitor, then most investors will not consider backing a company that competes with an existing portfolio company.
For all of the above scenarios, Metal provides founders the ability to identify investors that have backed particular types of companies. This capability is multifunctional and can be super useful for all of the above scenarios

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Finding Similar Companies

Within the Metal platform, founders can seamlessly identify investors that have invested in similar companies:
1

Complete your company description

Go to Settings → Company Profile and complete your company description in full. Metal uses this to algorithmically identify VC-backed companies with structurally similar business models, market positions, and founding contexts. A detailed, specific description produces the best comparable matches.
2

Review and tag comparables

Navigate to Discovery → Search → Company Search. Metal surfaces companies similar to yours based on your profile. Review the list and tag companies that are genuinely similar.
3

Surface investors behind tagged companies

Navigate to Investor Search and apply your tag as a filter. This can be done via the “Tags > Investors in Tagged Companies” filter. Metal returns every investor that has backed any company in your tagged list — sorted by activity and overall fit.
4

Layer additional filters

Refine the results by applying additional filters (stage, check size, geography, deal velocity, etc.).
In most searches, founders sometimes struggle with establishing a clear distinction between companies that are similar versus ones that are direct competitors. In most cases, a direct competitor is a company that solves the same problem for the same customers as your company.

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Interpreting the Results

When you run a Similar Companies search, prioritise investors based on three signals:
An investor who backed a comparable company three years ago may have thesis drift or be focused on existing portfolio. An investor who backed one in the last 18 months is actively deploying in the space.
Add a column in your pipeline for “Comparable Company” and note which of your similar companies each investor has backed.When you write your outreach, reference their specific portfolio company — it shows you’ve done the research and personalises the pitch without requiring a warm intro.
Referencing a specific portfolio company in your outreach is significantly more effective than generic sector references. It signals research, creates an immediate conversational hook, and gives the investor a familiar frame for your pitch.
Don’t list every comparable company you found in your outreach. Pick the single most relevant portfolio company the investor has backed and reference that one. Listing five comparables looks like a mail-merge template; referencing one signals genuine diligence.
Use Similar Companies alongside AI Search, Market Signals and New Funds to build a multi-signal investor list that zooms in on the “most likely” investors. Once you’ve built your targeted investor list, move to Pipeline Management to track your outreach, meetings, and next steps across your active targets.