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The Similar Companies approach finds investors who have already backed companies structurally comparable to yours. It is the most precise investor targeting method in Metal — because an investor who has previously funded a comparable thesis has already done the underwriting work your pitch needs them to do.
Every investment thesis starts with a question: has this category produced returns before? When an investor has already backed a company in your space and seen it grow, they’ve answered that question with capital. They understand the market, know the risks, and have a portfolio incentive to stay active in the category. Your pitch lands in pre-tilled ground.

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The Logic

Investors who backed comparable companies are better targets than investors who say they focus on your sector for three reasons:
An investor’s website says they focus on B2B SaaS. Their portfolio shows three investments in consumer marketplaces in the last 18 months. The portfolio is the signal. Similar Companies surfaces investors based on where they’ve actually deployed capital, not what they’ve written in their thesis statement.
Backing a comparable company means the investor has a working hypothesis about how businesses in your category grow, what risks matter, and what success looks like. Your pitch doesn’t need to build that model from scratch — it just needs to show that your company is the next compelling iteration of it.
An investor with one company in your space often wants a second — for pattern-matching, board seat leverage, and portfolio construction reasons. An investor with three companies in your category has become a category investor whether they planned to or not, and they’re motivated to maintain that position.

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Finding Similar Companies in Metal

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 better comparable matches.
2

Review and shortlist comparables

Navigate to Discovery → Search → Company Search. Metal surfaces companies similar to yours based on your profile. Review the list and shortlist 10–20 companies that are genuinely comparable — similar business model, similar target customer, similar stage at raise, similar geography.
3

Tag your comparable companies

As you review, tag the companies you want to use as comparables and save them to a tag list. Use the tag or save function in Company Search to build your curated comparable set.
4

Surface their investors

Navigate to Investor Search and apply your tag as a filter. Metal returns every investor who has backed any company in your tagged list — sorted by activity, stage alignment, and network proximity.
5

Layer additional filters

Refine the results by stage, check size, geography, and deal velocity. Investors who appear across multiple comparable companies are your highest-priority targets — they’ve backed the thesis more than once.

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Choosing the Right Comparables

The quality of your targeting depends entirely on the quality of your comparables. Weak comparables produce a noisy investor list. Strong comparables produce a focused, high-conviction one.
Worked example: A pre-seed B2B SaaS company building vertical software for independent freight brokers should use companies like Flexport, project44, and Samsara as comparables — not Salesforce, not Shopify. Flexport and project44 are structurally similar businesses that raised seed rounds from investors who understood the logistics technology space. Salesforce and Shopify are category-defining outliers; their early backers are rarely relevant for an early freight-tech raise.
Good comparable companies share most of these characteristics:
DimensionWhat to look for
Sector and sub-sectorSame vertical, not just adjacent — “vertical SaaS for construction” not “SaaS”
Business modelSaaS vs. marketplace vs. infrastructure vs. consumer all attract different investors
Stage at raiseMatch the stage at which they raised, not their current stage
Round sizeCompanies that raised rounds similar in size to yours
GeographyEuropean comparables for European raises; US comparables for US rounds
Founding contextTechnical founder-led, domain expert-led — investors pattern-match on founding team type
Avoid using category-defining companies (Stripe, Airbnb, Figma) as comparables. The investors who backed them did so at Series B+ valuations and are rarely relevant for early-stage raises. Use companies that raised at a comparable stage and size to your current round.

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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.
“I noticed you backed [comparable company] at seed — we’re building in the same space but focused on [specific differentiation]. Given your experience with [portfolio company], I’d value your perspective on how [key market dynamic] plays out.”
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.

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Combining With Other Approaches

Similar Companies is the most targeted approach in Metal’s discovery toolkit. Use it alongside:
  • AI Search for a broader baseline of investors with stage and sector fit
  • Market Signals to identify which comparable-company investors are also publicly expressing conviction right now
  • New Funds for investors who backed comparable companies at a prior fund and are now deploying fresh capital with a new vehicle
Investors who appear in your Similar Companies results and show recent Market Signals in your space are your first calls. They have historical conviction, demonstrated by capital — and current conviction, demonstrated by publishing. Once you’ve built your targeted investor list, move to Pipeline Management to track your outreach, meetings, and next steps across your active targets.