Every company begins with an incorporation certificate. Fundz reads nearly two million of them, surfaces the roughly 82 a day that look like the next venture-backed company, recognizes the serial founders who signed them, and then watches each one across 18 live signal feeds. Most are not in any other database yet.
Millions of new businesses are founded in America every year, and nearly all of them are local shops, holding companies, or experiments that do not work out. Fundz reads every certificate, every day, and scores each one for venture shape: a Delaware C corp qualifying into a second state, a startup formation agent on the filing, a scalable name, a founder our graph already knows. About 82 a day clear the bar, and 63% of those are in no other database in any form. Not in the deal-sourcing platforms. Not in the enrichment tools. Nowhere.
State filings name the people who signed them. Fundz matches those names against founders and operators already connected to funded companies, so when a repeat founder quietly forms their next company, the feed says so on day one: the new entity, the signature, and every company they built before. In August 2026 alone this surfaced repeat founders forming new AI, health, and enterprise software companies weeks before any of them had a public website.
Discovery is where other tools stop. It is where Fundz starts. From the moment the certificate lands, the company is monitored across every Fundz signal feed, and each event lands on the same record:
From our August 2026 review of vendor documentation and published pricing: list vendors sell the certificate and stop; platforms start watching only once a company is already visible.
| New-business list vendors | Deal-sourcing platforms | Fundz Inception | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sees the incorporation certificate | Yes, sold as a list | No, coverage starts later | Yes, daily, 13 states |
| Scores filings for venture shape | No | No | Yes, validated on outcomes |
| Recognizes serial founders at filing | No | No | Yes |
| Keeps watching after discovery | No, ends at delivery | Yes, once visible | Yes, 18 live signals from day one |
| Measured outcome rates, with sample sizes | No | No | Yes, published with confidence intervals |
| Reported price | $49 to $349 per month | $15,000 to $30,000+ per seat per year | Included with Fundz plans |
The strongest profile in the feed, a Delaware C corp qualifying into a second state and scored A by our model, went on to raise a first round within 12 months at 2.21%, which is 23.2 times the 0.095% base rate across all formations (n=5,301 companies formed January to August 2025, 95% CI 1.84% to 2.64%). Among the ones that raised, the median time from certificate to round was 5.1 months. Every expectation in the product ships this way: as measured history with its sample size and confidence interval, never as an AI guess about the future.
Every company begins with a public document: its incorporation certificate, filed with a state. Fundz ingests these filings daily across 13 states, more than 1.5 million records and growing, a million of them filed in the last year alone, and scores each one for venture shape: Delaware C corps, startup formation agents like Cogency and Registered Agents Inc, scalable naming, and founders our data already knows. About 82 companies a day clear the bar. Most are weeks or months away from having a website, a LinkedIn page, or a row in any sales database.
The incorporation certificate. It precedes the domain registration, the first hire, the first SEC filing, and the LinkedIn page. A company cannot legally operate, open a bank account, or raise a round before it exists on paper, so the certificate is the earliest observable moment of every company that will ever matter. That is where Fundz starts watching.
Nearly all new filings are local shops, rental LLCs, and holding companies. Fundz scores every certificate on structural signals: a Delaware C corp qualifying into another state, a startup formation agent, a scalable name, a founder already connected to funded companies in our graph. The scoring is validated against outcomes: companies our model scored lowest went on to raise at 0.006%, while the top profile raised at 23 times the overall base rate, measured on our own 2025 cohort of 567,623 formations.
Not that we could find. In our August 2026 review of vendor documentation and published pricing, new-business list vendors do sell state filing data, but the relationship ends at delivery: no venture scoring, no founder identification, and no monitoring afterward. Deal-sourcing platforms, which run 15,000 to 30,000 dollars per seat per year at reported prices, begin coverage when people signals or press appear, after the company is already visible. Fundz is the only platform we found that picks a company up at its certificate and then keeps watching it across 18 live signal feeds on one record.
The watch begins. Fundz monitors 18 live signal feeds, including funding rounds, key hires, trademarks, government contracts, executive changes, layoff notices, benefits filings, liens, and permits, and every event lands on the same company record it opened at the certificate. When a serial founder signed the filing, the record shows every company they built before. When the company website resolves, it attaches automatically.
We measure it rather than predict it. Of 5,301 formations from January to August 2025 that matched the strongest profile, a Delaware C corp qualifying into a second state and scored A by our model, 2.21% raised a first round within 12 months. That is 23.2 times the 0.095% base rate across all formations, with a 95% confidence interval of 1.84% to 2.64%. Among those that raised, the median time from certificate to round was 5.1 months. These are measured historical rates from our own data, not forecasts.
The Inception feed is included with Pro. Founder pedigree, resolved websites, and measured expectation cards come with Strategic, $99/mo billed annually.