What are Metal Lists?

Across every stage of the deal lifecycle, PE teams need flexible ways to organize companies, contacts, and deals. Metal Lists are dynamic, intelligent views that automatically consolidate your firm's data ecosystem into a single, queryable layer. Think of it as a spreadsheet that stays current, learns from your team's activity, and connects directly to your pipeline. It's where structured data becomes the foundation for conviction.

How to Build Metal Lists?

Step 1: Build Your Lists

Define your list based on CIMs, company, people, documents or deals. Select companies from your Companies Library. Every target your firm has ever evaluated is automatically enriched with data from your connected systems.

Step 2: Add Columns to Your List

There’re 3 types of columns:

1. Deal Property
   Add a built-in field or existing metrics that matter, such as fundamentals, financials, deal status, etc.
   
   

2. Relationship Column
   Link your list to another resource type, such as deal, CIMs, companies, etc.
   
   

3. Custom Columns with AI enrichment
   If you have specific criteria that define what makes a compelling investment, you can create custom columns and let AI populate them automatically.
   
   Simply provide a prompt for what you want to know, specify which data sources to prioritize. Metal will search your institutional library to find and structure the relevant information.

   
   Sample use cases：

   

   
   

4. Scoring as Custom Column
   Every firm evaluates opportunities through its own lens. Set up your scoring framework once in Metal, and it becomes available everywhere: add it as a column to any list for fast screening, or track it across your active pipeline as deals progress from sourcing through evaluation. Scores update as new data enters the system, so your conviction signals stay current without manual upkeep.

   
   

   

Step 3: Maintain Full Control

Every cell is fully editable later. Update values on the fly, correct AI suggestions, or add insights to keep lists accurate and current.

Every cell links directly to its source data. One click reveals the underlying document, page number, and specific passage where Metal found the information.

Step 4: Export When Needed

Export lists as CSV files to use enriched data in Excel, Tableau, or any analytics tool the team prefers. Source citations for every field are coming soon, enabling full traceability for IC presentations and investor reporting.

The Untapped Power of Lists in Due Diligence

What makes this transformative isn't just the time savings. It's the systematic completeness that changes how teams approach market mapping and target evaluation.

Dynamic Market Mapping
When new companies enter your pipeline or existing targets update financials, your lists automatically reflect current intelligence. The software sector list you built last quarter stays current with this quarter's data.

Thesis-Driven Screening
Instead of broad sector screens, create lists that embody your specific investment criteria. "Healthcare services companies with $30-100M revenue, 20%+ EBITDA margins" becomes a living, automatically maintained view.

Collaborative Intelligence
Lists become shared assets across your deal team. When a colleague enriches a target list with expert call insights, that intelligence immediately enhances everyone's view. Your firm's collective knowledge compounds with every interaction.

Pattern Recognition at Scale
Compare hundreds of companies across custom dimensions simultaneously. Spot the outliers, identify the patterns that matter, and develop conviction faster.

From Lists to Conviction Scoring
Lists don't end at research. Every target you track, every data point you enrich, feeds directly into Metal's attractiveness scoring on your deal dashboard. A company that looked marginal three months ago might surface as a top-ranked target after a new financial update or a shifted thesis. This is where lists connect to your active pipeline, compounding as your team adds context across every deal. 

Infrastructure-first Approach 

Metal Lists is one view into something larger. Every company your firm evaluates, every score calculated, every data point enriched feeds back into the knowledge graph and compounds across the full deal lifecycle.

Your firm's decades of investment experience becomes structured, connected intelligence that shapes how you source, screen, and evaluate the next opportunity. Lists are where that intelligence becomes visible and actionable. The more your team works in Metal, the sharper your conviction gets on every deal.

Get Started

Metal Lists is available now for all Metal platform users. 

Request a demo to see Metal Lists in action.