Corporate venture: back the startups of your own segment
You know your market better than any fund. Uback shows you who leads it and who is challenging the leaders, worldwide, and lets you signal, confidentially, that you would invest.
Your segment, mapped
Uback ranks non-listed tech startups by AI-estimated valuation, in fine-grained segments: payroll, telemedicine, humanoid robots, EV makers, vertical farming… Each segment is ranked worldwide, and country rankings complete the picture.
For a corporate, it is a map of its own field: the leaders, the challengers, and the companies to watch on the Radar.
Why challengers
Leaders rarely need a strategic investor. Their rounds are crowded, and priced accordingly.
Challengers are different. A corporate can bring them what money alone cannot: customers, distribution, industrial know-how, credibility. That is where a strategic investment makes the most sense for both sides, and where a deal is realistic.
Uback lists both in one place: the ranking for the leaders, the Challengers and the Radar for the companies coming up behind them.
How it works
- Choose a target. A segment, worldwide, in a region or in a country (for example humanoid robots in Europe), or a specific company, whether or not it has agreed.
- Declare an intention, with a ticket range. It is neither an order nor a commitment to invest.
- Join a pool. Your intention adds up with those of funds and other Backers. Pools are nested: an intention on a segment in Germany also counts in Europe and worldwide.
- The local partner takes over. When the pool reaches critical mass, the local partner presents the demand to the company. If the company agrees to talk, the partner structures the deal. You decide freely whether to take part.
Confidential by design
Your competitors will not learn which segment you are looking at.
Uback never publishes the identity of a Backer or individual amounts: only aggregated counters, rounded into ranges. Your identity is passed to the local partner only with your consent, and only when a pool containing your intention is passed to that partner.
Not alone at the table
Founders are often wary of a corporate on their cap table at an early stage: it can deter other buyers later.
In a Uback pool, a corporate does not come alone. It invests alongside financial investors, in a round that stays open to them. That makes a strategic shareholder easier for a startup to accept.
What Uback does not do
Uback is not a financial intermediary. It does not negotiate, holds no mandate and collects no funds.
Board seats, governance rights and terms are negotiated with the company through the local partner, under the partner's own responsibility. Uback brings intentions together; the deal, if it happens, is the partner's work.
Who can declare
Companies investing on their own account, directly or through a corporate venture unit, as well as investment funds and business angels acting through a holding company. Minimum ticket: USD 25,000.
Intentions open country by country, once the local partner is signed. See the Terms for Backers (draft).
FAQ
Is Uback a corporate venture fund?
No. Uback manages no fund and invests nothing. It ranks startups and brings investment intentions together; local partners structure the deals.
Can we target a startup that is not raising?
Yes. Declaring on a company does not mean it is raising funds. If a pool reaches critical mass and the company does not follow up, Uback invites Backers to move their intentions to a competitor or a similar company.
Will the startup know who we are?
Not from Uback's public pages. Your identity reaches the local partner only with your consent, once the pool is passed on. The partner then presents the demand to the company.
Can we get a board seat?
That is for you to negotiate with the company, through the local partner. Uback takes no part in the negotiation.
Which segments are covered?
All segments are listed in the sector taxonomy. New segments are ranked regularly.