Finding financial information on startups is incredibly difficult and time consuming. Prolific third-party analysis of startups — similar to services offered by stock rating firms like JP Morgan and Credit Suisse — simply don’t exist. Hong Kong-based Oddup aims to solve this problem.
Founded by James Giancotti and Jackie Lam in 2014, Oddup seeks to provide transparency in the startup scene by providing investors with data that indicates whether firms in their early stages are likely to succeed or fail.
Its algorithm assesses companies using a set of criteria to come up with the “Oddup Score” – ranging from zero to 100, with 100 indicating the least risk. The criteria include product, location, competitors, team, and potential growth, among others.
To further guide investors, startups are given a buy, sell, or hold rating – with matching commentaries – as well as an expected future valuation.
“We saw the growing number of startups in Asia over the past few years and the investors’ need for knowledge and trusted data. Transparency in terms of startup information is relatively low compared to public companies, the industry definitely needs people to provide reliable information,” says Ollie But, Oddup’s head of marketing.
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Oddup is headquartered in Hong Kong but it has an on-the-ground network of analysts in Singapore, Taiwan, Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen in China, as well as Sydney and Melbourne in Australia. Today, it announced its expansion in Southeast Asia, with the launch of its Manila services.
Oddup has roughly 15,000 startups in its database, of which 2,000 have been rated.
Full access to all Oddup reports costs US $499 a month. Users can subscribe to a single company for a 30-day period for a lower fee of US $99.
This is an excerpt from Tech in Asia. You can read the full article here