2nd October 2025
Choosing the right investor is a pivotal decision for founders - and at FPE, every investment is a partnership built on shared ambition and trust. In this series, ‘Behind the Partnership’, we share the stories behind our portfolio companies, the businesses they’ve built, and why we chose to back them.
In this edition, we will talk about our partnership with Clearstate, the leading provider of specialist research and data products for the MedTech industry.
We are a specialist investor in software, data, and software services companies. We partner with businesses that have achieved success with little or no external capital and support the next phase of their growth - what we call second-stage growth - through strategic focus and investment in people, products, and processes. We look for businesses that combine deep domain knowledge with scalable, tech-enabled delivery. Clearstate, a data and analytics business, fits squarely into that approach - delivering insight that drives high-stakes decisions for global MedTech leaders.
Data Analytics: A Market Ripe with Opportunity
We believe data and analytics businesses are among the most compelling models in software and data landscape - especially when they are built around proprietary data, embedded in customer workflows, and designed to scale. Clearstate has built a highly differentiated business delivering hyper-granular, insight into opaque markets to global MedTech clients. Customers use this data to power critical strategic decisions - from market entry to resource allocation. We have seen how powerful this model can be through our investments in businesses with similar offerings including IWSR, 60 Decibels, and Vanda. Like those businesses, Clearstate is deeply embedded in its customers’ strategic workflows, delivering not just data, but insight.
What Attracted Us to Clearstate
When we met Clearstate, we were immediately excited by its combination of unique, hard-to-source data and embedded client relationships. From our early conversations with CEO Ivy Teh, it was clear that this was a business built with intention. Ivy’s blend of analytical depth, commercial instinct and sector knowledge impressed us immediately. She had created a loyal customer base across some of the world’s leading MedTech companies and saw a clear path to scale.
Proprietary Data in Opaque Markets
Clearstate stands out for the uniqueness of its proprietarily sourced data assets. The business has spent over a decade building a repeatable methodology for primary research in geographies where reliable data is scarce and fragmented.
This includes:
• Longitudinal patient pathway mapping in under-researched conditions
• On-the-ground expert panel interviews and field surveys
• Structured time-series datasets across more than 50 emerging markets
In our Data & Analytics: A founder's guide to growth and maximising valuation, we talk about the strategic value of owning primary, longitudinal data, particularly in markets where reliable intelligence is hard to find. These businesses build defensible advantages across the data value chain: sourcing, enhancement, and delivery. Clearstate epitomises this model. It combines deep, ground-level data collection with structured methodologies and scalable formats that slot directly into its customers’ decision-making processes.
Scaling Clearstate: Shared Priorities for Growth
FPE will support Clearstate across several strategic priorities to unlock its next phase of growth. These include:
• Product expansion: building repeatable offerings and deeper vertical modules
• Technology investment: enhancing integration and customer access
• Go-to-market scale: strengthening sales infrastructure and international reach
We have seen this transformation first-hand. At IWSR, we supported the journey from a market-standard dataset to a scalable, SaaS-like subscription model, underpinned by segmented pricing, targeted product innovation, and structured data delivery. Clearstate has the potential to follow a similar path, which is what makes this such a compelling partnership.
Built on Data, Built for Growth
Clearstate is more than a strong business - it’s a perfect example of how proprietary data creates long-term value. It is also the latest example of our belief in “data as infrastructure,” a theme we explore in our 'Data & Analytics: A founder's guide to growth and maximising valuation' report. When businesses are built around proprietary data and embedded insight, they earn the right to scale - with loyal customers, pricing power, and clear expansion headroom.
Whether it’s wine, social impact, or emerging market healthcare, the best data businesses share common traits:
• Embedded into customer workflows
• Anchored in unique, hard-to-replicate insight
• Able to scale through productisation and automation
Clearstate ticks all three.
Final Word
We are excited to support Ivy and the Clearstate team as they scale the next phase of their journey. It’s a partnership grounded in shared ambition, and a belief in the power of data to unlock meaningful, long-term value.
To learn more about Clearstate, visit their website, or contact us directly. To explore our approach to investing in data businesses, download our Data & Analytics: A Founder’s Guide to Growth and Maximising Valuation.
