This is the 2021 edition of the VC Tech Stack report compiled in May 2021 - a report about the tools and solutions used by Venture Capital firms and entrepreneurship-related entities. Questions include CRMs and deal flow solutions, scheduling, chat, audio and video, community and sharing knowledge, automation, talent, files, and many more.

1. VC Tech Stack
2021 Edition
Miguel Pinho
miguel@seedcamp.com
May
VCTechStack.com

2. 21
Thank you for taking the time
Data collected during February & March 2021 and this report was compiled in May of 2021
responses

3. Respondent profiles

4. Respondents profiles
Companies
Most respondents are European VCs with funds ranging form 70M to 500M with 47% of them
having raised their last fund in 2020. In terms of stage focus it remains very similar to 2020 with
most looking into Pre-seed to Series A companies.
Teams
Team sizes range from 4 to 280 but most companies have smaller teams of 20 or less.
Budget
When it comes to budget, 50% have a budget of 50K or less and 65% increased their tech
budget when compared to 2020.

5. Type of company
What would best describe your company?
21 out of 21 people answered this question
VC

6. Stage of investment
If applicable, at what stage(s) do you primarily invest in?
21 out of 21 people answered this question

7. What was the currency of the last fund you raised?
15 out of 21 people answered this question
Location & Fund (Size, Currency and Vintage)
If applicable, what was the size of your last fund?
16 out of 21 people answered this question
Min: 70M —> Max: 500M
Average: 127
60%: Less than 100M
27%: Between 100M and less than 200M
13%: 200M+
Note: these values ignore the fund currency & closing date but still give some indication of the fund sizes.
In which year did you raise your last fund?
15 out of 21 people answered this question
— 53% raised last fund between 2014 and 2019
— 47% raised last fund in 2020
Where is your company located?
21 out of 21 people answered this question
— Europe: 90.5%
— UK: 71.3%
— Finland: 4.8%
— France: 4.8%
— Germany: 4.8%
— Ireland: 4.8%
— USA: 9.5%

8. Team size
What is the size of your team?
21 out of 21 people answered this question
Min: 4 —> Max: 280
Details:
— 43% are part of teams with 10 or less people
— 19% are part of teams with 11 and less than 20 people
— 33% are part of teams with 21 and less than 50 people
— 5% are part of teams with 51+ people
What is the size of your platform team?
17 out of 21 people answered this question
Min: 0 —> Max: 8 Average: 3
Details:
— 12% have a platform team of 0
— 70% have a platform team of 1 to 3
— 18% have a platform team of 4+
0
2
4
6
8
10
< 10 11 to 20 21 to 50 51 +
Team Sizes
0
2
4
6
8
10
0 1 to 3 4+
Platform Team Sizes
Teams have grown in size.
62% of the teams have 20 or less people (vs. 85% in 2020)
Key takeaway
Most teams have a platform team
On average 20% of the team is on a platform role
Key takeaway

9. Companies supported
How many companies do you support?
21 out of 21 people answered this question
Details:
— 19% support 1 to 20 companies
— 38% support 1 to 50 companies
— 67% support 1 to 75 companies
— 19% support 76 to 200 companies
— 14% 201+
Question details
If you're a fund please use your total portfolio size
including all companies: Active; Acquired and Shut down
67% of support 75 companies or less
Key takeaway

10. Tech budget
What is your yearly tech budget?
21 out of 21 people answered this question
Comment
All respondents answered this question but a large percentage were not
sure, didn’t know or didn’t want to disclose what the tech budget was.
Details - from those that knew what their tech budget was:
— 50% have a budget of 50K or less
— 42% have a budget of 20K or less
Tech budget currency distribution:
— 69% GBP
— 31% EUR
Tech budgets have grown.
Only 50% have a budget of 50K or less vs. 83% in 2020
Key takeaway

11. Tech budget evolution
In comparison to 2020, what happened to your tech budget for 2021?
21 out of 21 people answered this question
Comment
Almost all respondents answered but a fair percentage were
not sure or didn’t know.
From those that answered, when comparing their 2021 budget
with their 2020 budget they:
— 94% maintained or increased it
— 65% increased it
— 29% maintained it
— 6% reduced it
From those that raised a fund in 2020:
— 57% increased it
— 43% maintained it

12. Tools
22 Questions
allowing respondents to select more than one option
212 Different tools listed
30 New tools added in 2021

13. Scheduling
What tools and solutions do you use to assist you in scheduling meetings and calls?
21 out of 21 people answered this question
Woven
Julie desk
While obviously not a tech solution, a good PA
is frequently the best solution for this problem

14. Chat
What communication tool(s) do you use for “chat/text” conversations?
21 out of 21 people answered this question

15. Audio & Video calls
What communication tool(s) do you use for audio/video calls?
21 out of 21 people answered this question
!"#$%&%'()*+,-&

16. Knowledge sharing
What tool(s) do you use to engage and share knowledge amongst your portfolio/community?
21 out of 21 people answered this question
Wix website
Microsoft Sharepoint
Comment
This is a pretty broad question/topic and the answers show it. It is
quite interesting to see how so many different tools are being used
for this purpose.
When compared to 2020, Notion clearly got a lot of traction for
this use case growing almost 3x.
Key takeaway

17. Note taking
What tool(s) do you use to take notes?
21 out of 21 people answered this question
Another question where Notion grew 2x when compared to 2020. On the other hand, Evernote usage was divided by 2
Key takeaway

18. Automation
What automation tool(s) do you use?
21 out of 21 people answered this question
Zapier remains the most frequently used automation solution.
I was however surprised to see that almost 43% don’t use
any automation system at all.
Key takeaway

19. CRM
What CRM(s) do you use?
21 out of 21 people answered this question
The biggest change on this question is that when compared with 2020, Airtable almost doubled its usage as a CRM.
Key takeaway

20. Deal flow management
What tool(s) do you use for deal flow management?
21 out of 21 people answered this question
Question details
Sometimes this is the same as your CRM, but it's not
necessarily the case.

21. Portfolio management
What tool(s) do you use for portfolio management?
21 out of 21 people answered this question
Question details
List of portfolio companies, key team members, etc.

22. Cap Table management
What tool(s) do you use for cap table management?
21 out of 21 people answered this question
If we “skip" Microsoft Excel then Carta seems to be getting
more traction going from 1 in 2020 to 3 selections in this
2021edition of the report.
Key takeaway

23. Portfolio monitoring and reporting
What tool(s) do you use for portfolio monitoring and reporting?
21 out of 21 people answered this question

24. Researching & Benchmarking
What tool(s) do you use for researching and benchmarking?
21 out of 21 people answered this question
Question details
On companies pre/post-investment

25. Talent
What tool(s) do you use to support your portfolio/community finding talent?
21 out of 21 people answered this question
Monday (*rebranded to Getro)
brdg.app
* *
* Getro actually received 3 votes. One of the “Other” votes mentioned Monday (which rebranded to Getro)

26. Documents
What tool(s) do yo use for files/documents & decks?
21 out of 21 people answered this question
Tresorit
* *
Question details
Broad question on file: storing, sharing and signing

27. Website
If you run a website/blog, what tool(s) do you use?
21 out of 21 people answered this question

28. Newsletter
If you run a newsletter, what tool(s) do you use?
21 out of 21 people answered this question
Substack
Mailmerge with YAMM

29. Podcast
If you run a podcast, what tool(s) do you use?
21 out of 21 people answered this question

30. Events
What tool(s) do you use for running events?
21 out of 21 people answered this question
Zoom + Email
Cosmos + Zoom
Luma
It’s quite exciting to see Hopin getting listed here in second place.
Note: I might be (am) biased on being excited on this one since I
work at Seedcamp an early stage investor in Hopin :)
Key takeaway

31. Feedback
What tool(s) do you use to collect data and/or feedback?
21 out of 21 people answered this question

32. Project management
What tool(s) do you use for project management?
21 out of 21 people answered this question
Google Sheets
Both Airtable and Notion got a lot of traction on this use case
when compared with 2020 growing almost 2x.
Key takeaway

33. Expenses management
What tool(s) do you use to manage your internal company expenses?
21 out of 21 people answered this question
* *
Concur by SAP
Datamolino
Proactis
Pleo took the #1 position from Expensify (prev. 26%) when compared to 2020.*
Key takeaway
* Note: I work at Seedcamp and Pleo is a portfolio company.
(Now called “Dext”)

34. Password management
What tool(s) do you use to manage your passwords?
21 out of 21 people answered this question
This is better than 2020 but it’s still scary to see that almost 40%
do not use any password manager.
Please, if your team doesn’t use a password manager yet, start
using one ... now!
Key takeaway

35. VC Tech Stack Landscape
I have also built an overview image of the landscape which helps us visualise the tools being used.
Full size available at VCTechStack.com

36. Goals, Lessons & Thank yous
Next edition(s):
— The two main goals for the next edition are to get more responses & grow beyond Europe.
— Are you interested in being notified about the next edition? Email me at miguel@seedcamp.com
Special thank you to:
— You! For taking the time to participate and for sharing your feedback and improvement ideas!
— Keji for helping spread the word :)
— A few Seedcamp team members for taking personal time to give me early feedback.

37. Thank You!
Miguel Pinho
miguel@seedcamp.com
LinkedIn.com/in/miguelpinho
VCTechStack.com

38. FAQ

39. FAQ
Why did you not focus exclusively on industry-specific tools and/or problems?
1.Including only VC/PE focused tools would substantially limit the list of solutions considered and I was
keen to be as inclusive as possible to make sure it represents “all the tools being used”. Beyond that, I
also believe this is a great opportunity to discover how certain tools are being use in less obvious ways
- these small “hacks” can be extremely useful for us all.
2.Focusing on VC/PE questions and problems would be a limitation I wasn’t keen on having since I
wanted the form and this report to provide a starting point answer to the question: "I am starting a
fund tomorrow, what tools should I consider for my stack?”
Why wasn’t the form anonymous?
1.I wanted to reduce the risk of data manipulation by making sure the information was submitted by the
real person. The hack I have found for this edition was to, once the form was submitted, send a
confirmation email to the email indicated. This approach also reduces the likelihood of the same
person submitting the form multiple times.
2.I was keen to give an easy way for the person taking the time to contribute to get the final report
straight in their email inboxes and get access to future similar activities (forms, reports, events, etc.)