the sources, by signal
| signal | free source | what to look for |
|---|---|---|
| new leader at a listed company | BSE and NSE corporate announcements | Disclosures of new directors, key managerial personnel or senior management. |
| new director at any company | MCA company master data | The current list of directors and when they were appointed. |
| funding round | Inc42, Entrackr, YourStory, VCCircle | Weekly funding roundups and individual deal stories. |
| new shares issued | MCA filings | A return of allotment, which follows most funding rounds. |
| hiring push | Naukri, LinkedIn Jobs, company careers pages | Several roles in one team, or a new senior role. |
| tools they use | Job descriptions | "Experience with Salesforce" or "HubSpot" in a job post. |
| new licence | RBI, SEBI and IRDAI registers and press releases | Newly registered NBFCs, payment aggregators, brokers and intermediaries. |
| IPO coming | SEBI draft offer documents | Companies that have filed a DRHP. |
| acquisition | Exchange disclosures, CCI orders | Announced deals, and combinations the Competition Commission has approved. |
| government buying | GeM and CPPP (eprocure.gov.in) | Open bids in your category, with closing dates. |
| expansion | Company press releases, business news | New offices, branches, plants or cities. |
| plans for the year | Earnings call transcripts, investor presentations | What management said they'll invest in. |
stock exchange filings
Listed companies must tell the exchanges about material events under SEBI's listing rules (Regulation 30 of the LODR Regulations). That includes changes in directors, key managerial personnel and senior management, acquisitions and big contracts. Both BSE and NSE publish these as corporate announcements, searchable by company and date. For any listed account on your list, this is the most reliable place to see a new leader or an acquisition on the day it happens.
MCA records
Every company registered in India files with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. The MCA portal lets you view a company's master data for free, including its current directors. A new director has to be reported to MCA, and a company that allots new shares after a funding round files a return of allotment. MCA is slower and clunkier than news, but it covers private companies that never make the news.
regulator registers: SEBI, RBI and IRDAI
If you sell to financial services, regulators are your best source. SEBI publishes the draft offer documents of companies preparing an IPO. RBI publishes lists of registered NBFCs and authorised payment aggregators, and announces new licences in press releases. IRDAI lists registered insurers and intermediaries. A new licence is one of the clearest signals there is: the company now has to build operations it didn't have.
government tenders
A tender is a buyer telling you, in writing, what it wants and by when. GeM (the Government e-Marketplace) and the Central Public Procurement Portal list open bids from central ministries and public sector undertakings, searchable by category. Many states run their own portals too.
job boards and careers pages
A hiring push shows where a team is short and growing. Look for several open roles in one team, or a new senior role that didn't exist before. Read the job descriptions too: they often name the tools the team uses, which tells you who you'd be replacing, or working alongside.
funding news
Indian startup funding is covered closely. Inc42 and Entrackr both publish weekly funding roundups, and YourStory and VCCircle cover individual deals. Funding news is the easiest signal to find, which also means your competitors see it. Get there early, and say something more useful than congratulations.
a 30-minute weekly routine
This is the routine we'd give a new SDR with a list of 30 to 50 target accounts. It's our practice, not a benchmark.
- Monday, 10 minutes: read the week's funding roundups and the exchange announcements for your listed accounts.
- 10 minutes: check open roles at your top 20 accounts, on their careers pages or LinkedIn.
- 5 minutes: search GeM or your regulator's press releases, if you sell to government or financial services.
- 5 minutes: write down every signal with its date and link, and match each one to the right person at that company.
- Then write openers for the accounts with two or more signals first.
Set up Google Alerts or a news reader for your top accounts' names, so press coverage comes to you instead.
where this stops working
Past about 50 accounts, the routine stops fitting into a morning. Matching news to the right company is fiddly too: half the stories that mention a company name are about someone else. That's the work the free signals tool does for you, with a person checking each signal before it's sent.