Landscape of WineTech Startups, Investors, and Founders Worldwide for 2023

… or How we plan to find Investors for our Winetech Startup.

Part 1. Introduction

1.1 Disclaimer

We’ve made the decision to initiate the process of attracting investors for our winetech startup. For more details about our project, please refer here. To ensure an organized approach, we decided to analyze the global landscape of winetech startups to work specifically with those investors who actively invest in wine-related startups.

About our project: GWR (Global Wine Rating) is a revolutionary platform for wine lovers, winemakers, and retailers. Our AI-driven 100-point system combines expert, critical and user ratings, aggregating evaluations from various sources, including global wine competitions, for objective quality assessment.

We already integrated medals from over 600 wine competition events over the last year and the Vivino ratings. Next step — integration of wine critics scores. More details you can find here (Article 1, Article 2, Article 3, Article 4).

1.2 Defining Winetech Startups

We define winetech startups as tech-enabled companies focused on wine production, distribution, and consumption.

Our research excludes projects exclusively related to cocktails, spirits, liqueurs, brandy, and other beverages not directly related to wine.

1.3 Scope of Our Research

Our focus was on gathering the following information worldwide:

• Winetech startups that have attracted investments.
• Investors who invest in winetech.
• Identifying winetech projects globally that haven’t publicly disclosed attracting investments but are potential collaboration partners.
• Founders of winetech startups.

Our primary sources of information were Crunchbase and Dealroom, along with specialized Google queries and analysis of winetech startup reports. The gathered information comprises four interrelated lists, structured in Coda.io. The entire analytical work was conducted using Advanced Data Analytics ChatGPT.

We believe this comprehensive dataset represents the most thorough Landscape of Winetech Startups, Investors, and Founders worldwide.

1.4 Structure of Article

• In the second part of the article, we will present the most interesting data and facts obtained from the gathered information.
• In the third part of the article, we will provide a detailed description of the data we collected and the approaches we utilized.
• In the fourth part, we will outline our strategy for using the acquired information.
• In the fifth part, we will explain how other startups can utilize this information and gain access to it.

1.5 Hypothesis

Our information gathering was guided by two key hypotheses:

• Targeting investors who have previously invested in the wine industry and demonstrating synergy between the invested projects and our own will yield more meaningful results compared to generic venture capitalists.
• The second hypothesis is that reaching out to founders and leaders of successful winetech projects, with which we may have synergy, can also help us identify investors.

We anticipate a 3–6 month timeline for investor attraction. Our ongoing process for attracting investors will be detailed in subsequent articles, while this article presents the results of our research.

Part 2: Landscape of Winetech Startups, Investors, and Founders Worldwide

Here, we will present the research results based on the following interconnected databases:

• A list of all funds that have invested in winetech startups.
• A list of winetech startups that have secured investments based on Crunchbase data.
• A list of winetech startups for which there is no official information on investment, but they are significant active winetech startups.
• A list of winetech startup founders.

A detailed description of the data structure in each table will be provided in the second part of the article.

2.1 General Data

• Number of investors in winetech startups.
• Number of winetech startups with confirmed investments.
• Total number of winetech startups, including those without confirmed investments

2.2 Investors

We have identified a total of 315 investors in winetech projects worldwide, with the vast majority based in the USA, France, and Italy. Here are three particularly interesting graphics related to winetech investors:

• Types of Investors.
• Number of winetech projects invested in by a single investor.
• Typical stages at which investments are made in winetech startups.
• How many investors in current winetech startups are still active in their operations.

This chart shows that the majority of investments come from classic venture capital firms (VCs), with 63.4% of investors being VCs. This makes them our primary focus. Additionally, winetech projects are fairly receptive to accelerators, with 7.1% of investments coming from that category. Angel investors, both independently and as part of Angel Investment Clubs, account for 7.4% of total investments.

This was the most interesting graph for us, showing that there are 49 investors who have invested in 2 or more winetech startups. It is these investors that winetech startups should focus on when seeking investment.

This graph shows that the majority of investment deals in winetech are concentrated in funds that invest in the early stages, such as Seed and Early Stage Venture.

The fact that most investors in winetech projects are active suggests that it is worthwhile for current winetech startups to approach them for investment.

2.3 Invested Winetech Startups

We have identified 127 winetech startups with confirmed investments. A majority of these startups, approximately 84%, are active on one or more social media platforms.

Winetech startups are primarily located in wine-producing countries or countries with traditionally high wine consumption, such as the USA, France, Italy, England, and Spain.

Winetech startups primarily focus on wine marketplaces, wine production, and equipment for wineries and wine enthusiasts. Additionally, various Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings for the wine industry and subscription services for wine enthusiasts make up a significant portion of the landscape.

Most winetech startups receive investments from 1 to 5 investors. Startups that attract investments at the A and B series stages tend to have a larger number of investors.

The majority of winetech startups appear to cater to wine enthusiasts and wine producers.

Common monetization models for winetech startups include Commission Fees, Subscription Fees, and Asset Sales. Advertising as a monetization method is less common.

A significant number of winetech startups are founded by one or two individuals, contrary to the conventional wisdom that three types of founders (Hacker, Hustler, and Hipster) are dream team for successful startups. This may be a trend in winetech.

This slide shows how many winetech startups have links to various web pages: their website, Crunchbase, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. A substantial number of startups (63%) have links to four out of the five mentioned pages

2.4 Founders

Here’s the pie chart showing the distribution of founders by the number of startups they are involved in. Most of them are involved in only one, but 11% take part in several of them.

Part 3. Structure of Gathered Data and Used Approaches

3.1 List of All Funds That Invested in Winetech Projects

As of the publication date, data on 315 investors have been collected. The collected data includes:

• Investor Name.
• Website.
• List of startups in which they have invested.
• Investor Type*.
• Stages at which the fund invests**.
• Operational Status (Active or Not)***.

* Investor Type is classified based on Crunchbase’s categorization:

• Accelerator
• Angel Investment Club
• Angel/Individual
• Investment Bank
• Family Investment Office
• Government Office
• Private Equity Firm
• Private
• Venture Capital
• Venture Debt
• Investment Partner
• Incubator
• Equity Crowdfunding
• Syndicate
• Pension Funds

** Stages at which investors invest based on Crunchbase’s classification:

• Grant
• Seed
• Early Stage Venture
• Late Stage Venture
• Private Equity
• Secondary Market
• Venture
• Convertible Note
• Initial Coin Offering
• Debt
• Crowdfunding
• Non Equity Assistance

***Operational status:

• Open
• Close

3.2 List of Winetech Startups with Confirmed Investments

As of the publication date, data on 127 startups has been collected. The collected data includes:

• Project Name.
• Business Model*.
• Client Focus**.
• Income Streams***.
• Technologies****.
• Website.
• Crunchbase.
• Linkedin.
• Facebook.
• Dealroom.
• Twitter.
• Who Invested.
• Country.
• Mail.
• Founders.
• Status.
• Description of the startup.

* Business Model Types were adapted from NerdWallet:

• Marketplace & Ecommerce (Retail)
• Manufacturing
• Fee-for-service
• Subscription (incl SaaS)
• Bundling
• Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
• Leasing
• Franchise
• Distribution
• Freemium
• Advertising or affiliate marketing
• Razor blades

**Type of client focus:

• Winemakers
• Wine lovers
• Distributor
• Retail
• HoReCa

*** Types of Income Streams based on Digital Leadership:

• Advertising fee
• Asset sale
• Brokerage fee
• Subscription fee
• Commission fee
• Renting, Leasing & Lending

****Technologies:

• Deep tech
• Artificial Intelligence
• Hardware
• Machine learning
• Mobile app
• Big data
• Blockchain
• NFT
• IoT
• 3d Technologies
• Computer Vision
• Virtual Reality
• Recognition technologies
• Connected device
• Nanoteh
• Deep learning
• Autonomous & sensor tech
• SaaS
• Selling own inventory
• Manufacturing
• Robotics

3.3 Founders of Winetech Startups

As of the publication date, 229 founders have been identified. The data collected includes:

• Founder’s Name
• Startup Name
• Founder’s Crunchbase
• Founder’s Linkedin
• Founder’s Facebook
• Founder’s Twitter
• Other Startups in Which They Have Invested or Are Founders.

3.4 List of Winetech Projects with Undisclosed Investment Information:

• Project Name
• Website
• Crunchbase
• Description of the Project

Part 4. Our Strategy for Utilizing Gathered Information

Based on the collected data, we have developed the following action plan:

• We have analyzed all winetech startups to identify those that represent direct or indirect competition. We have also assessed each startup’s strengths and weaknesses compared to our project.
• We have identified winetech startups with which we may have synergy or mutually beneficial collaboration.
• For each investor, we have formulated how an investment in our project can enhance the winetech projects in which they have already invested. We are particularly focused on investors who have backed two or more winetech projects.
• We have located all accelerator programs that work with winetech projects, and our startup is currently participating in two specialized accelerator programs.
• We are progressively expanding our contact base on LinkedIn with founders and CEOs of relevant startups, as well as investors.
• In November, we will participate in Web Summit in Lisbon, where representatives from five investment funds that have previously invested in winetech startups will be present. Our plan is to meet with them primarily.
• Starting from November, we will distribute our investment proposal through all available communication channels, especially LinkedIn.
• We are also engaging with various wine bloggers and wine writers to write articles about our project.

This plan will undoubtedly be refined and adapted, but thanks to the gathered information, we are confident that our outreach efforts will be precise and compelling.

Part 5. How Winetech Startups Can Use This Information and Gain Access to It

1. This information helps you understand which venture funds to approach for winetech projects and at which stage of your project they are likely to invest.
2. You can determine possible synergy with winetech startups in which an investor has previously invested, increasing the likelihood of them paying attention to your project.
3. You can analyze other winetech startups to identify both direct and indirect competitors, as well as potential partners. Furthermore, studying current winetech startups allows you to assess the strengths and weaknesses of your startup.
4. By finding key individuals among important investors and startup founders on LinkedIn, you can make targeted contact and highlight opportunities for mutually beneficial collaboration.

If you are interested in the information we have gathered, you can purchase it. The information is provided in four files with detailed descriptions in EXCEL or CSV formats. We spent four months collecting and processing this information, and you can obtain it in just one day. You can purchase our report here (coming soon).

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The author:

• Veacheslav Cunev (Linkedin)