AI has completely changed how innovation teams scout for new technologies. In the olden days (ahem 5 years ago), if you wanted dealflow you had to fund an accelerator or partner with a university, hoping for access to ~1,000 startups. Today? AI platforms mine millions of companies in seconds and deliver matches far more precise than any accelerator stream.
At Klimatic Group, we run our own proprietary database of 10,000+ companies across 150 countries, powered by AI. But we know no single database is enough. So, we went hands-on with 7 different AI scouting methods to see which ones actually deliver — and which ones don’t.
Here’s the unfiltered truth.
How We Tested
We used the query: Grid-Scale Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), Series A+.
Why this matters:
It’s a real, frequent innovation need.
Series A+ is mature enough to test “market-ready” filters.
The category is narrow enough to stress-test relevancy.
We judged tools on Relevancy, Data Quality, Usability, and Pricing.
We were not looking for solutions that are in residential battery storage, EV battery storage, alternatives to battery storage (such as thermal), or too early. If the tool could not differentiate (and some did not!) then we knew it would not be a good tool for scouting. Furthermore, technology readiness (TRL) is important for venture clienting. The tool should be able to recommend market-ready solutions, not just innovations on the market. Series A+ was our broad search filter for market-ready as that data is readily available, whereas TRL can be subjective and based on speculative data. We were ultimately looking for a solution that generated at least 80% relevancy of matches generated.
The Results
1. ChatGPT / Perplexity / LLMs
Why: This is the one we keep hearing about for scouting. Why pay thousands to an AI Scouting tool or partner with Accelerators when LLMs can do this for free? But can they?
Relevancy Score: 15%
Data quality: 6 / 39 useful matches, mostly from the US/EU market.
Usability: Intuitive. Stronger prompts would likely generate better and more relevant data.
Pricing: Free - Low
Our Opinion: Great for quick desk research, but not a real scouting engine. Perplexity beat ChatGPT.
2. Crunchbase / Pitchbook / Investor deal flow platforms
Why: Corporate Venture Capital teams (CVC) tend to have access to these platforms, which makes it easy for Innovation teams to access. They serve as very useful databases for investment decision-making. But do they serve as a good platform for technology scouting?
Relevancy Score: 15%
Data quality: 7 / 35 useful matches. Several solutions sourced were global (including the Japanese market). The data presented was very investor-facing (market trends, rounds raised, investor, shareholder, exit information).
Usability: Intuitive and easy-to-use. Fine to use on 3 companies a month, beyond that with the paywall it is difficult to use.
Pricing: Crunchbase is inexpensive, but Pitchbook and other platforms are costly.
Our Opinion: If you have already sourced some interesting startups from another place, Crunchbase / Pitchbook / investor platforms serve well as secondary investor-facing data to understand company maturity. However it will not serve well for technology readiness and understanding product/solution scouting.
3. Venture Clienting Software
Why: Beyond simply scouting, project management support is also embedded within the application. Designed specifically for innovation managers and venture clienting teams, combining scouting with other pain points that can be addressed via technology is their advantage.
Relevancy Score: 37%
Data quality: 4 / 17 useful matches from the EU market.
Usability: Confusing, buggy, onboarding required. There were some bugs and kinks that needed to be sorted out which was promised to be worked upon once the company raised its next investment round.
Pricing: High, starting at $10K.
Our Opinion: As Venture Clienting itself is a new industry, technology that serves to address this industry also feels a bit new. We are unsure if we really needed all the bells and whistles the platform was offering compared to what our test was focused on which is precision-scouting.
4. AI + Human Hybrid Platforms
Why: Developed out of consultancies, these scouting tools have a services element. This is useful for clients who do not only want to rely on technology, but also have access to human expertise.
Relevancy scoring: 80%
Data Quality: 8 / 10 useful matches. “Tinder-like” Swipe Model, option to request expert input. Response time was around 3 business days.
Usability: nice clean interface, easy to use, mimics other platforms to make it intuitive.
Pricing: Expensive (starting at $10K annual).
Our Opinion: Solid option if you want consultancy + AI in one. Highly relevant results.
5. Heavy AI Scouting Intelligence
Why: These are purely tech companies that have strong engineering capabilities to deliver top solutions. Highly innovative themselves, they are pushing regularly for product updates and responding to customer feedback to make strong scalable AI Scouts.
Relevancy scoring: 100% for top 10 hits. Large-scale sourcing (196 matches).
Data Quality: Though not marketed as a “database” we were able to source 196 solutions. We really loved the thoughtfulness behind the product, such as selling innovations internally to other teams via AI-generated scouting presentation material. The customer support response time was also very high (same day).
Usability: Easy to use, might require a little training (a demo or onboarding), but intuitive to use.
Pricing: Very expensive (starting at $20K annual).
Our Opinion: Best in class. This would be our pick for those with unlimited budget. There is no FOMO as many many companies are presented with relevancy rankings. We also liked that we could invite our clients into our scouting journey so that it becomes a collaborative experience. Highly recommend.
6. Bonus - Crawler Tools (Non-AI)
Why: You don’t necessarily need AI to scout. A cheaper version is simply a good crawler to source and index websites that fit the innovation challenge. Crawlers are now also embedding AI elements into their platforms to drive accuracy.
Relevancy scoring: 60%
Data Quality: We liked that you can input your own data, event data (all startups that attended a large conference, like Slush), and the crawler data on top.
Usability: It feels a little “old-school” from a UI perspective, but good for those who just want the data. Can be learned, but requires a little bit of training and onboarding. Simple.
Pricing: Inexpensive (less than $2K a year)
Our Opinion: Great for lean teams that want more than just ChatGPT access.
7. Bonus - DIY Airtable Database
Why: There are many open-source startup databases that exist. One can simply pile these together and utilize a crawler for existing portfolio pages of VCs and accelerator programs to self-generate data.
Relevancy scoring: Depends on how much you develop it! Klimatic Solutions Database has at the moment a 35% relevancy score.
Data quality: We like that Airtable utilizes AI, has built-in features to test things like broken website, crawlers to update information, and keep our data very active in real-time.
Usability: Easy to review, but challenging to build. One would need an Airtable guru to set up with tutorials - shout out to our Founders Associate Simone!!
Pricing: Airtable can be pricey depending on how much data is embedded and how many users you have. Our data has 10K solutions, which makes pricing less than $1K a year.
Our Opinion: Best if you want to own your own data ecosystem and manage it. But it is unlikely to match top AI tools for precision.
Our Takeaways
Unlimited budget? Heavy AI Intelligence tools win every time.
Lean teams? A smart mix of LLMs + Crunchbase + Crawlers can get you decent results.
Want high-relevance fast? AI + Human hybrids are a strong mid-tier option.
One surprise: Generalist AI tools outperformed specialist “climate-only” platforms. The better the AI, the less specialization matters.
Most innovation teams are still overspending on accelerators or settling for outdated databases. With AI, you can source global innovations faster, cheaper, and with more precision — if you pick the right tool.
👉 At Klimatic Group, we not only tested these tools — we partnered with the best ones. That means our clients get both insider expertise and partner discounts.
If you’re serious about upgrading your innovation scouting, let’s talk. Want to know who exactly we evaluated? Book a meeting here!