• by Jess Nelson , March 3, 2016

San Francisco-based startup Plonked announced the launch of a new B2B search engine and acquisition tool on Thursday that helps businesses connect with potential customers and partners.

The free Web-based search portal allows users to search for similar-minded companies, analyze market ecosystems and view how companies relate to one another with the help of data visualization. 

Market ecosystems appear as a tree-like diagram for added usability, and an additional bonus is the ability to find companies that themselves are searching for companies similar to your own.

Ankur Varma, CEO of Plonked, explained how the company hopes to make finding the right lead within a company easier for professionals.

“Search is a core pillar in many, many verticals,” Varma says, listing marketing, sales, recruitment and merger and acquisitions as examples. “Finding the right company that meets your needs is fairly important.” 

What makes Plonked unique is its machine-learning algorithm that claims to pull out any critical data of a company that may be useful for the searcher, including the right sales lead.

“That’s where our machine learning comes in,” says Varma. “We graph out the ecosystem of the market to rank who is more likely to be relevant. As our graph gets dense over time, we can truly pinpoint the leader in the market.“ 

Plonked’s data is derived from a number of sources, including a data crawler that reviews data on U.S.-based company Web sites, social media, press releases and FCC records.

Search terms can range from wide-ranging, such as "IoT" or "email," as well as incredibly precise, such as "dialysis machine technology."

Varma doesn’t see Plonked as a replacement for popular search engines like Google, Bing or even LinkedIn, but as another tool for business professionals to utilize to prioritize their target lists.

Although the search engine still has some kinks to work out, as reported by Network World, it may be a useful tool for marketing and sales teams strapped for resources and manpower. Plonked’s search engine has an easy-to-use interface, no paywall, and doesn’t require any integration or advanced coding experience.

Varma himself confirms that the search engine is only about 80% accurate now, but the power of machine learning means that the technology will become more precise the more it is used.

Plonked is currently available for free online, and the Varma asserts that the company is looking to expand with an additional paid subscription model with more scalable services, including CMS and email marketing integration, in the near future.