As initial public offerings (IPOs) ignite with companies like Pinterest, Lyft, Uber and Slack executives taking their companies public, SimilarWeb — a provider of analytics related to the performance of websites and apps — has moved into the financial space with the launch of an analysis tool. that  uses online data to offer insights for real-time investments.

Investors Solution, the product name, supports venture capital, private equity, investment banking and hedge funds, and is designed to answer critical digital questions by providing a complete view into a company or market’s digital performance and trends.

Investors traditionally used fundamental datasets to evaluate company performance, but the lack of objective and real-time digital data sets has put up roadblocks when it comes to understanding market trends and benchmarking competitors.

Combining mobile, web, app and search data with SimilarWeb’s algorithms gives investors a better understanding of the performance and the potential of private and public companies. The tool provides insights into 80 million websites and three million apps.

The company used the technology to analyze the most recent IPO in 2019 including Slack, Uber, Zoom, and Lyft.

For example, the technology can monitor growth of ride-sharing services Lyft vs. Uber by analyzing the demand of riders vs. drivers.

The percentage of devices with the Uber app installed continues to grow. Uber is installed on three times as many devices as Lyft. However, Lift installs grew 54% year-over-year from January through February 2019, compared with Uber’s 17% YoY growth for the same time period.

The tool also can analyze the ride-sharing habits between Lyft and Uber. Lyft riders are more likely to use the app on weekends, with Lyft at 28% vs. Uber at 25%. These use patterns typically reflect a younger demographic using the service, for example.

Among drivers, the Uber app has grown 95% YoY when it comes to installations between January and February 2019, compared with Lyft’s 75% growth rate.

Uber drivers also spend more time driving compared with Lyft drivers. In February 2019, on average, Uber drivers drove about 1.32 hours more than Lyft drivers. More time per user on the app could suggest that Uber drivers worked longer hours during this time frame.

Other examples provided here include data on Airbrb and Slack.