Economic Intelligence Brief No. 13

The Language of the Raise

NLP on 6,800 pitches — the words that move money.

24x — raise gap between top and bottom quartile pitches

Summary

We ran natural-language analysis on 6,800 funded pitches. The words that separate a big raise from a small one aren't the ones you'd guess.

Key findings

• A 24x gap separates top-quartile from bottom-quartile raises.
• Big-raise vocabulary is substance, not hype: FDA, pipeline, recurring revenue, clean energy, real assets.
• Sentiment, pitch length, and "traction" buzzwords show no raise advantage.
• Technology framing rose from 59% of pitches (2016) to 99% (2025).

Frequently asked questions

Which pitch words actually correlate with bigger raises?

Substance terms: FDA, pipeline, recurring revenue, clean energy, real assets. Sentiment, pitch length, and "traction" buzzwords show no raise advantage.

How big is the gap between top and bottom pitches?

A 24x raise gap separates top-quartile from bottom-quartile funded pitches.

Audience

Quant · data buyers · NLP

About this brief

Published by CCLEAR.ai. Anchored to public SEC EDGAR filings and hand-verified against a locked data snapshot. CCLEAR is a data publisher, not an investment adviser; figures describe market activity, not investment outcomes or advice.

The Language of the Raise · CCLEAR Research Library · License the data · Commission research

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