How the data is sourced
Every figure and every name on VestSight can be traced to a document. This page explains which documents, how they are read, and what the verification labels mean.
What counts as an exit
An exit is an event that puts money in the hands of a company's existing shareholders. We track seven kinds:
| Kind | What it is |
|---|---|
| Secondary sale | Existing shareholders sell shares to a new or existing investor |
| Acquisition | Another company or an investor buys the whole company or a controlling stake |
| IPO offer for sale | Shareholders sell shares to the public in an initial public offering |
| Buyback | The company buys its own shares back from shareholders |
| Founder sale | A founder sells part of their holding |
| ESOP liquidity | Employees sell shares from stock option plans, often in a company-run buyback |
| Merger | The company merges into another, usually for shares |
Coverage is companies based in India's Tier-1 metros (Bengaluru, Mumbai and the wider metropolitan region, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata and Ahmedabad) from 1 January 2018. An exit whose company is registered elsewhere is set aside for review rather than published.
Sources
- Statutory filings. SEBI offer documents (draft and red herring prospectuses) list the shareholders selling in an offer for sale and the number of shares each offers. Where a filing states a figure for a seller, we record it; where a draft states only a ceiling ("up to"), we record it as the filing's, not as money anyone received.
- Public reporting. Deal reporting from Indian business publications. We read headlines and the short excerpts outlets publish, never paywalled text, and we link every exit to each report of it.
- Stock exchange and company-law filings where they are available.
The crawler that collects them identifies itself and follows each site's rules; see how the crawler works.
How a document becomes an exit
Each document is parsed for the parties, the kind of transaction, the amount and the date. A story that only reports talks, intentions or rumours ("in talks", "may", "likely") is discarded. A funding round that also includes a secondary sale produces both a funding round and a linked exit. Reports of the same exit from different sources are merged into one record with every source attached.
People
A person appears only if a source names them in connection with an exit, and we record only their name, their role as the source states it, and the exit. Every person record says why it exists (a statutory disclosure, public reporting, or a profile they published themselves) and where it came from. We do not infer wealth, and we never estimate what a person received from an exit unless a filing states it for that person.
Profile links are found through a web search, never by visiting the profile itself, and are shown only after an editor has confirmed they belong to the person.
Verification
- No mark: a single source.
- Corroborated: two independent sources agree (two outlets, or a filing and a report), or a filing and its later version name the same party.
- Verified: an editor has checked it.
Amounts
Amounts are shown in rupees and state what they measure: the reported consideration, the size of an offer for sale, or the size of a buyback. Amounts reported in another currency are converted at the rate recorded with the record. "Not disclosed" means no source states an amount.
Overviews
Each exit and person page may carry a short "Overview". It is written ahead of time from the sources on that page by a language model, and checked by rules before it is stored: it must stay within the facts, name no one's wealth or gains, carry nothing about a person's private life, and refer to people by name. Nothing is generated when you open a page.
Corrections and removal
If something about you is wrong, or you want it removed, email darshv.mishra@gmail.com. A removal is permanent: we keep a minimal record so that the same source cannot add you back.