Target sourcing starts with a sentence ("the client wants oncology assets in phase 1", "screen the sector universe before we pitch") and ends with a vetted list a deal team will stand behind. The middle is hours of database queries, filing reads, and profile assembly. That middle is what Model ML automates.

From mandate to screened universe

A screening request runs against Model ML's integrated data partners rather than the public web (integrations):

• S&P Capital IQ: 63,000+ public companies and 4.5 million private companies, with ownership, filings, fundamentals, M&A history, funding, and estimates.

• PitchBook: 9.8 million+ private companies, 3 million deals, 617,000 investors, and 160,000 funds, including Morningstar's fund research.

• FactSet: premium feeds across ownership, fundamentals, and estimates.

• Web research, fully cited and filterable by approved source.

The screen applies the mandate's actual criteria (stage, sector, geography, ownership, funding history) against those sources, with each datapoint in the output traceable to its provider record through superscript citations.

From universe to deliverable

A list is not the deliverable; the profile pack is. Grid assembles the screened names into the firm's standard shapes (company profiles, tearsheets, market maps, buyer cluster analyses) and exports them into the firm's own PowerPoint, Word, or Excel format (PPT Export). AutoCheck verifies the pack before it reaches a partner.

Practitioner context: in deal-team accounts of first-generation AI tools, target generation was one of the lanes with genuinely positive feedback, and the bottleneck was what came after, turning the screen into client-ready material (a practitioner's view).

Recurring screens

Sourcing is rarely one-shot. Modules run screens on a schedule (a standing sector watch, a quarterly universe refresh) or on triggers, so the pipeline view stays current without re-running the work by hand (AI Modules).

Who runs sourcing on Model ML

West Lane Capital Partners uses Model ML across the investment lifecycle beginning at sourcing; i5 Invest runs buyer cluster analysis and industry research on it; Intrepid Growth Partners uses it for rapid sector research (customer evidence).

Related: pitch book automation, drafting an IC memo from diligence findings.