funding-digest

AI DISCLAIMER (MANDATORY): You MUST include the following disclaimer text in the powerpoint footer. This is not optional — the report is incomplete without it:

"Analysis is AI-generated — please confirm all outputs"

Footer — At the bottom of the generated slide, as a prominent yellow banner: "Analysis is AI-generated — please confirm all outputs"

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Weekly Deal Flow Digest

Generate an analyst-quality single-slide PowerPoint that summarizes key takeaways from recent funding rounds across watched sectors or companies, using S&P Global Capital IQ data. Each deal links back to its Capital IQ profile for quick drill-down.

When to Use

Trigger on any of these patterns:

• "Give me a deal flow digest for this week"
• "Weekly funding recap for [sector]"
• "What deals closed in [sector/companies] recently?"
• "Transaction roundup" or "deal roundup"
• "Capital markets update for my coverage universe"
• "Summarize recent funding activity"
• Any periodic briefing request about deals, raises, or rounds

Nested Skills

This skill produces a one-slide PPTX briefing:

• Read /mnt/skills/public/pptx/SKILL.md before generating the PowerPoint (and its sub-reference pptxgenjs.md for creating from scratch)

Entity Resolution & Tool Robustness

S&P Global's identifier system resolves company names to legal entities. This works well for most companies but has known failure modes that cause empty results. Apply these rules throughout the workflow to avoid silent data loss.

Rule 0: Pre-validate ALL identifiers before querying funding

Before calling any funding tools, run every identifier through get_info_from_identifiers. This is the cheapest and most reliable way to catch problems early. Check two things in the response:

1. Did it resolve at all? If the identifier returns empty/error, the name doesn't exist in S&P Global. Try the alias from references/sector-seeds.md, the legal entity name, or the company_id directly.
2. What is the status field?
   • "Operating" → Safe to query for funding rounds.
   • "Operating Subsidiary" → The company exists but is owned by a parent. It will return zero funding rounds. Note this in the digest as context (e.g., "acquired by [Parent]") but do not query for funding.
   • Any other status (e.g., closed, inactive) → The company is no longer operating. Historical data may exist but no new activity.

This single pre-validation step prevents the majority of empty-result issues. Batch all candidates into a single get_info_from_identifiers call (it handles large batches well) and triage before proceeding.

Rule 1: Never trust empty results without a fallback

If get_rounds_of_funding_from_identifiers returns empty for a company you expect to have data:

1. Try the legal entity name or company_id. Brand names usually work, but some don't. See the alias table in references/sector-seeds.md for known mismatches. Common pattern: "[Brand] AI" → "[Legal Name], Inc." (e.g., Together AI → "Together Computer, Inc.", Character.ai → "Character Technologies, Inc.", Runway ML → "Runway AI, Inc.").
2. Verify the company exists in S&P. If you skipped Rule 0, call get_info_from_identifiers(identifiers=["Company"]) now — if this also returns empty, the company may be too early-stage or not yet indexed.

Rule 2: Subsidiaries have no funding rounds

Companies that are divisions or wholly-owned subsidiaries of larger companies (e.g., DeepMind under Alphabet, GitHub under Microsoft, BeReal under Voodoo) will return zero funding rounds. Their capital events are tracked at the parent level.

How to detect: The status field from get_info_from_identifiers will show "Operating Subsidiary". The references/sector-seeds.md file also flags known subsidiaries with ⚠️ warnings. Skip these for funding queries.

Rule 3: Use get_rounds_of_funding_from_identifiers as the primary tool, not get_funding_summary_from_identifiers

The summary tool is faster but less reliable — it can return errors or incomplete data even when detailed rounds exist. Always use the detailed rounds tool as the primary data source. The summary tool is acceptable only for quick aggregate checks (total raised, round count) and should be verified against the rounds tool if results seem low.

Rule 4: Batch carefully and validate

When processing large company universes (50+ companies), batch in groups of 15–20. After each batch, check for companies that returned empty results and run them through the fallback steps in Rule 1 before moving on.

Rule 5: The role parameter is critical

• company_raising_funds → "What rounds did X raise?" (company perspective)
• company_investing_in_round_of_funding → "What did investor Y invest in?" (investor perspective)

Using the wrong role returns empty results silently. For deal flow digests, you almost always want company_raising_funds. Only use the investor role when specifically analyzing an investor's portfolio activity.

Rule 6: Identifier resolution is case-insensitive but spelling-sensitive

S&P Global handles case variations ("openai" = "OpenAI") but is strict on spelling and punctuation. "Character AI" may fail where "Character.ai" succeeds. When in doubt, use the company_id (e.g., C_1829047235) which is guaranteed to resolve.

Workflow

Step 1: Establish Coverage & Period

Determine what the digest should cover. There are two setups:

Returning user (has a watchlist): If the user has previously defined sectors or companies to track, use that list. Check conversation history for prior watchlists.

New user: Ask for:

Parameter	Default	Notes
Sectors	(at least one)	e.g., "AI, Fintech, Biotech"
Specific companies	Optional	Supplement sector-level coverage
Time period	Last 7 days	"This week", "last 2 weeks", "this month"

Calculate the exact start_date and end_date from the time period.

Step 2: Build the Company Universe

For each sector specified, build a company universe using a validated bootstrapping approach:

1. Seed companies from domain knowledge (see references/sector-seeds.md)

   • Pay attention to the ⚠️ warnings and alias notes in the seeds file — some well-known companies are subsidiaries, have been acquired, or require a specific legal name to resolve.
   • The seeds file includes company_id values for known alias mismatches. Use these directly if the brand name fails.

2. Pre-validate all seeds immediately (Rule 0):

   get_info_from_identifiers(identifiers=[all_seeds_for_this_sector])
   

   Triage the results into two buckets:

   • ✅ Resolved & Operating (status = "Operating") → proceed to competitor expansion
   • ❌ Unresolved or Subsidiary → retry with alias/legal name from seeds file; subsidiaries are noted for context but excluded from funding queries

3. Expand via competitors (using only the ✅ resolved seeds):

   get_competitors_from_identifiers(identifiers=[resolved_seeds], competitor_source="all")
   

4. Validate expanded universe:

   get_info_from_identifiers(identifiers=[new_competitors])
   

   Apply the same triage. Filter by simple_industry matching the target sector. Drop any unresolved names or subsidiaries.

If the user provides specific companies, add those directly but still run them through the pre-validation triage. Never skip validation — even well-known brand names can fail silently.

Keep the universe manageable — aim for 15–40 resolved, operating companies per sector. For a multi-sector digest, this might total 50–100+ companies.

Step 3: Pull Funding Rounds

For all companies in the universe:

get_rounds_of_funding_from_identifiers(
    identifiers=[batch],
    role="company_raising_funds",
    start_date="YYYY-MM-DD",
    end_date="YYYY-MM-DD"
)