How do you find innovative companies?

Finding the most innovative companies in the world has never been easier – if you have the right tools.

In the competitive world of investment attraction, everyone is trying to find those high-growth companies that are at the forefront of innovation. But how do you find the company that is the best fit for you, and just as importantly, how can you find them without wasting a lot of resources?

Let’s take one example. Imagine you are trying to locate companies in the UK that are active in Virtual Reality and have strong growth prospects.

Option 1: The long, long list

The immediate problem is that the traditional way of identifying companies in the UK, Standard Industrial Classifications (SICs), will always struggle to keep pace with an ever-evolving economy. SICs were last updated in 2007 when Gordon Brown was Prime Minster and Northern Rock was still a bank. As a result, SICs reflect a time before Apple launched the iPhone, Facebook went global, and IBM created its first artificial intelligence in Watson.

Trying to find a virtual reality company by using SICs is like trying to order an Uber from a payphone. In the UK there are three-quarters of a million companies listed under the SIC for ‘Computer programming, consultancy and related services’ and even going down the most detailed level of the classification system still turns up 196,000 companies listed under ‘business and domestic software development’.

Option 2: A Day on the web

Giving up on SICs another option for finding our innovative VR company is to check out the many lists produced by various websites. But how are these lists being prepared? And are they designed to promote the list builder as much as the companies they are reviewing? While you can find companies this way it will still require more research to understand their true potential beyond a random internet list.

If all else fails, there is always trawling the web which is not the most efficient way to spend your day. While innovations like generative AI can speed things up, remember the results are often just feeding back the company’s marketing blurb to you without any objective assessment of potential.

Option 3: Get straight to the point with Velociti

If you are after a fast and accurate option, then Velociti is the tool to consider. Developed by a team of experts in economic development and mathematical modelling, Velociti gives you access to a series of unique analytical tools that make finding companies easy. These include:

• A proprietary algorithm analyses a combination of macro data, company performance, and a gravity model of international trade to produce a rating for companies on the database. Those rated A or A+ are the brightest stars in the economy right now and by using the search filtering criteria, you have instantly prioritised your search to objectively verified high-growth, high-potential companies.
• Velociti ‘tags’ provide a forward-thinking classification that reflects the economy of today rather than twenty years ago. It is a system that allows you to specify searches for companies active in key technologies such as AI, autonomous vehicles, clean energy, fintech, internet of things, robots, and environmental sustainability to name but a few. And the good news for our example is that it also includes Virtual Reality.
• Growth Triggers are indicators that a company is expanding and Velociti allows you to search key metrics such as recent company funding or hiring announcements. While not as definitive as ratings or tags, knowing that a company is planning on hiring a new Director of International Development is a good indicator of its future strategic direction.

Suddenly within a few clicks, I’ve arrived at a list of some of the most innovative VR companies in the UK who I know have a sound financial footing and growth potential.

For example, this search strategy instantly found Hedgehog Labs who are working with Microsoft to explore how mixed reality could be used in the automotive sector. It also found Igloo who take VR to the next level by designing and developing software that can turn any space into an immersive environment – and already have three offices worldwide.

Armed with this information, and all-important verified contacts I am now well ahead of the competition in finding and contacting the companies and people that matter.

Take control of your searching

Velociti is a game-changer for anyone who spends time searching and contacting companies. It is as fast as a search engine and comes with the added assurance that your results are based on an objective assessment of data.

If you would like to find out more, click here to arrange a demo.