—Glossary
Fundraising terminology
Definitions for terms used across CapSignal and our resources.
- Campaign
- One fundraising outreach effort with defined shortlist, sequences, and timeline.
- Check size
- Typical investment amount an investor or fund deploys per deal.
- Data room
- Secure folder of diligence materials—deck, model, cap table, legal docs.
- Deployment signal
- Evidence an investor is actively writing checks—recent investments, follow-ons, or fund close announcements.
- Engagement signal
- Reply patterns, subject line performance, and send timing data from prior campaigns.
- Exclusion list
- Investors flagged to never receive outreach—conflicts, prior passes, existing relationships.
- Follow-on
- Additional investment in an existing portfolio company—signals sector conviction.
- Lead investor
- Primary investor setting round terms and often taking the largest check.
- Match score
- CapSignal's 0–100 ranking of investor fit for your specific raise, with written rationale.
- Party round
- Raise with many small investors and no clear lead—often harder to close.
- Reply rate
- Percentage of contacted investors who respond by email. CapSignal median: 11.4%.
- Send window
- Optimal days/times for outreach based on investor timezone and historical open data.
- Sequence
- A multi-step outreach cadence (typically 3–5 emails) sent to one investor over 2–3 weeks.
- Shortlist
- Ranked list of target investors approved before campaign launch.
- Signal layer
- One of four data categories—deployment, thesis, engagement, network—used in scoring.
- Signal refresh
- Nightly recalculation of investor activity scores from new data.
- SPF/DKIM
- Email authentication records that improve deliverability when sending from your domain.
- Term sheet
- Non-binding document outlining investment terms before definitive agreements.
- Thesis fit
- Alignment between an investor's stated sector/stage focus and your company's category and round.
- Warm intro
- Introduction through a mutual connection. CapSignal maps potential paths via portfolio overlap.