The short answer
MarketPrior helps founders raising a round find and vet investors from the public record. In the US, a director or promoter seat on a company’s SEC Form D filing, held by someone who is not one of its executive officers, is the public trace of a board-seat investor or fund partner. MarketPrior reads those related persons across the Form D corpus, so for any company you can see its investors, how many distinct companies each one sits on, how often it followed on and who it invests alongside — then run a cited background check on an investor or fund before you sign. It is not an investor database: there are no investor contact details, no matching and no introductions.
At a glance
- Best for
- A target list of investors; checking an investor before you sign
- Source
- SEC Form D related persons (directors, promoters) and funding-round records
- Per investor
- Portfolio breadth, follow-ons and co-investors
- Coverage
- US private raises filed on Form D, generally within 15 days of the first sale
- Investor checks
- Sanctions, PEP, litigation and adverse media on partners and fund entities
- Not included
- Investor contact details, introductions or matching
How do you find investors who back companies like yours?
Investors repeat themselves: a fund that backed three companies in your category is far more likely to take your meeting than one that never invested there. The public record shows that pattern — if you start from the companies, not from an investor directory.
- 1
Describe your peers
Search companies by country, industry code, size and funding stage — the same filters as the lead search — or name the companies you are compared with.
- 2
Keep the ones that raised
Filter to companies with a Form D filing in the window you care about. Every event links to its filing on SEC EDGAR.
- 3
Open their investors
The Ownership & Investors section of a company’s full report lists the investors traced from its Form D filings and funding-round records.
- 4
Rank by behaviour
For each investor, see how many distinct companies it holds a seat on and in how many it followed on. Broad, repeat investors in your space go to the top of your list.
- 5
Follow the co-investors
Investors who sit on the same companies appear as co-investors: the next names to research, and often the ones who bring each other into rounds.
The list ends where the public record does: who to contact, and how to get a warm introduction, is still your work.
What does MarketPrior show about each investor?
The graph is built from the Form D related persons in the corpus — seats on filings, not press releases or self-reported profiles. Each field below is in the Ownership & Investors section of a full report.
| Field | What it means | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Investor | A person or fund entity with a director or promoter seat on the company’s Form D who is not one of its executive officers | SEC Form D related persons |
| Named investor | An investor named on a funding round held for the company | Funding-round records |
| Portfolio | Distinct operating companies where the investor holds such a seat; fund vehicles excluded | The Form D corpus |
| Follow-ons | How many of those companies the investor appears on in two or more filings | The Form D corpus |
| Notable | An investor with seats on three or more operating companies | Computed from the portfolio |
| Co-investors | Other investors sitting on the same portfolio companies | The Form D corpus |
| Platform | SPV and fund-administration platforms that appear on many filings as administrators — labelled, never counted | Computed |
Who is investing in your space right now?
Form D is generally filed within 15 days of the first sale, so it often shows a raise weeks before the announcement — or when there is no announcement at all. In the trigger feed, filter Form D filings and amendments by industry code, region, amount and recency, open each filing to read its related persons, and save the search so new raises in your space arrive as alerts.
- A peer that just filed tells you who is active this quarter, not who was active three years ago.
- Amendments flag offerings that changed or are still running.
- Ask can do the legwork — “which US fintech companies filed a Form D in the last 90 days?” — and cites every company and filing it returns.
How do you check an investor before you take their money?
A term sheet makes an investor a long-term part of your company. The checks a fund runs on founders work just as well in reverse.
- The partner: a founder-style check on the person — sanctions, PEP status, UK director disqualification, litigation and adverse media, with every hit tiered confirmed, probable or possible.
- The fund or its management company: a company report on the entity — registration, sanctions, litigation and enforcement, adverse media.
- The track record: portfolio breadth and follow-ons show whether they back a company once or keep supporting it.
- The references: the investor’s portfolio companies tell you which founders to call before you sign.
- After the round: put the fund entity on a watchlist and get sourced alerts on new litigation, sanctions matches or adverse media.
What the public record will not tell you
- Form D is US-only. Private rounds outside the US are often not filed anywhere public, so non-US investors appear only through US filings or funding-round records.
- Form D names related persons, not every investor: an angel or fund without a director or promoter seat leaves no name, and the form never says who led a round or how much each investor put in.
- Not every raise is filed: some exemptions do not require Form D, and some issuers file late.
- There is no investor contact database, no investor emails and no matching or introductions. MarketPrior shows who invests; reaching them is up to you.
- The investor view never feeds a company’s risk or upside score.