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What is the Affinity Agent?
The Affinity Agent is a component of CarriedAI’s ecosystem designed to integrate with existing workflows. Operable within the Affinity platform, the agent scans, analyzes, and scores dealflow entries to streamline evaluation processes. Here’s how it works.
Data Processing
The Affinity Agent operates within the Affinity instance, reading and analyzing data from your tables. Its access is restricted to the specific lists determined by the users. When a new organization is introduced in the list, the agent automatically identifies and processes it, completing relevant fields and preparing the data for review.
In this demo the analysis includes:
- Company data
- Funding data
- Analysis of the product offering
- Classification of the organization (e.g., whether it’s a consulting firm or not)
- Confidence scoring for each determination
Scoring Mechanism
The Affinity Agent evaluates organizations using two sets of criteria. These criteria are completely customizable to reflect the investment criteria of the customer and are unique to them. In this demo we use the following criteria:
- Mandatory Fields: These must be met for a company to receive a non-zero score.
- The company must not be a consulting firm.
- It should not be a biotech company.
- It should operate as a B2B business.
- Funding should be below $5 million.
- The company must be based in Europe and maintain an English-language website.
- Desirable Fields: These add points to the score but are not required. Examples include:
- Complexity of the product and technology (scale 0 - 10).
- Climate Tech Classification (10 points if Climate Tech, 0 if not).
- Additional focus industries and sector details (10 points if within a sector of focus, 0 if not).
The Affinity Agent combines these criteria to deliver an actionable score, helping investors quickly determine whether an opportunity aligns with their interests.
How to Create the Best Score for Your Firm
When designing a scoring system for your dealflow, consider the following principles to ensure it’s effective and tailored to your needs:
1. Make it Simple: Overcomplicating your scoring system can lead to confusion. Focus on a few key mandatory and desirable criteria that directly align with your firm’s goals. A simple scoring system is easier to implement and interpret.
2. Simple Scores perform as well as Neural Networks: Advanced algorithms like neural networks can analyze data in complex ways, but studies show that simple scoring systems often perform just as well for dealflow screening. A straightforward system is equally effective and easier to explain and adjust as your priorities evolve.
3. Do Not Overfilter: While it’s important to narrow down your dealflow, overfiltering can cause you to miss high-potential opportunities. Keep your mandatory criteria strict but reasonable, and allow flexibility in desirable fields to capture a broader range of promising prospects.
4. Be Mindful of the Available Data: Your scoring system is only as good as the data it uses. Depending on the stage at which you are evaluating the companies the available data might not be enough for the Agent to evaluate certain criteria, which might require specific data points provided by the company.
Example: Synthesia
As an example, the Affinity Agent analyzed Synthesia, a company with funding exceeding $5 million. Since it did not meet the early-stage funding criteria, its mandatory score was zero. However, desirable fields showed high product tech complexity and relevance in industries such as enterprise software and cloud computing.
This level of analysis allows decision-makers to identify promising companies while filtering out those that don’t meet specific criteria.
Conclusion
The Affinity Agent simplifies dealflow screening, saving time and improving accuracy. It provides a structured approach to scoring and evaluating opportunities.
To learn more about the Affinity Agent and how it can support your firm, feel free to reach out!
