By Pitchbook
When professionals talk about industries, they are referring to a broad group of companies that operate in the same general space. For example, business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C), energy and healthcare are all well-established industries that represent the breadth of the term. An industry vertical, however, is more specific and describes a group of companies that focus on a shared niche or specialized market spanning multiple industries. Also called vertical markets, industry verticals include everything from 3D printing to eSports.
Industry verticals vs. industries
To illustrate the difference between the two, take fintech—an industry vertical. Fintech companies utilize various technologies to facilitate financial services traditionally offered by banks. Fintech startup SoFi, an online banking platform, operates primarily in the consumer finance industry, while online insurance platform Kin, also a fintech startup, is in the property and casualty insurance industry.
PitchBook empowers investors and other financial services professionals to find the best opportunities for their firms with unparalleled data and insight. To that aim, we categorize the three million private and public companies in our platform by industry and by 50+ industry verticals. Learn the ins and outs of those industry verticals below.
One step deeper: Emerging Spaces
Another relevant term is emerging spaces—a unique classifier PitchBook developed to describe nascent but growing areas that could eventually become full-fledged verticals. Examples of the 85+ emerging spaces we track to help our customers identify new trends include ghost kitchens and clean meat.
