JOFOC.pdf

Department of Energy Washington, DC 20585

December 23, 2024

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

Identification Number: Modification P00005 to 89703023PAR000030

1. Identification of the agency and contracting activity. The Contracting Activity is for the Department of Energy (DOE), Washington Headquarters. The requiring agency is Advanced Research Project Agency- Energy (ARPA-E).

The nature and/or description of the action being approved, i.e., sole source, limited competition, establishment of a new source, etc. Contracting without providing for full and open competition. The Government anticipates a Firm Fixed Price (FFP) contract to Pitchbook Data, Inc.

2. A description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency’s needs.

DOE requires a web-based subscription service that enables ARPA-E and other agencies within DOE to search investments made by specific actors, review specific investments in technology domains, and provide downloadable financial data and round-by-round deal data. The tool will assist DOE with building overall acumen for investment trends in the clean tech space and provide actionable research.

Specifically, ARPA-E accelerates commercial innovation for Energy Research and Development. To meet its mission, ARPA-E requires an information platform for increased visibility into innovative technology companies and relevant market trends and which seamlessly integrates into the DOE existing management tools. Further, ARPA-E requires a platform to keep it up to date with transactions that often don’t make the news or press.

3. The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition. This action is under the procedures of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 13.106-1(b)(2), under the authority of 41 U.S.C. 1901, Simplified Acquisition Procedures.

4. A statement demonstrating the unique qualifications of the proposed contractor or the nature of the action requiring the use of the authority. DOE and more specifically ARPA-E have an ongoing need for a web and mobile application to review data, research, and technology covering the private capital markets, including venture capital, private equity, and M&A transactions.

Pitchbook is a web-based platform that allows users to create lists of organizations and track investors based on attributes including industry, location, employee counts, pre-and post-money valuations, total capital raised, revenue figures, and more. Additionally, the platform allows users to track companies that have current or prior awards and to monitor successful fundraising rounds, key executives, and other technologies developing in the industry. Further, Pitchbook allows users to create market maps and quickly get a better understanding of market information relevant to DOE and identify the most active early-stage investors in climate tech.

PitchBook is the only platform that provides Deal Sourcing information, which is the ability to accelerate alerts and notifications on entities, in areas of interest to ARPA-E and other users across DOE, or other relevant company capital raises and conduct due diligences. PitchBook helps identify seed-stage and accelerator-backed companies at specific inflection points in their capital raising cycle when they will be looking to raise capital from new investors that show progress with advancing the commercialization and deployment of DOE funded R&D. The PitchBook Platform also provides Round-By- Round Due Diligence / Valuations and Deal Structuring, which provides data on pre-venture (accelerator, angel, and seed) and venture capital rounds. The platform conducts deal-level due diligence by looking at capitalization tables, pre/post-money valuations, and series terms for similar transactions.

PitchBook also contains Executive-level information ties in to existing financial due diligence efforts using platforms that research published literature to better understand personnel connections across companies that would potentially receive investment from DOE. The platform also provides data on the location of investors both in the U.S. and abroad.

PitchBook’s core competencies that cannot be matched include Round-by-Round Due Diligence, investor contact data and dry powder figures, and targeted company-level tracking to include technologic developments, investment activities, executives, and funding sources.

Failure to support this requirement would adversely affect operations for DOE. If the services are not provided, DOE’s visibility into innovation technology companies and relevant market trends as well as understanding of and anticipating emerging trends will be hampered, increasing the risk of mission failure to an unacceptable level.

5. A description of efforts to ensure that offers were solicited from as many potential sources as is practicable. Include whether or not a Sam.gov announcement was made and what response, if any, was received, or include the exception under FAR 5.202 if not synopsizing. Describe whether any additional or similar requirements are anticipated in the future. The PitchBook Platform main competency is the Round-by-Round Due Diligence tools which is not offered by competitors. For this reason, PitchBook Data Inc. is the only company that can meet both DOE’s market/business analysis and business intelligence analytical for conducting financial due diligence needs at this time.

On October 31, 2024, a “Notice of Intent to Sole Source” on SAM.gov for 6 days in accordance with FAR 5.203(a)- Publicizing and Response Time. Responses from industry due by November 7, 2024, an appropriate time for a commercial item.

6. The anticipated dollar value of the proposed acquisition, including options if applicable, and a determination by the Contracting Officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable. The anticipated price for this order will be fair and reasonable. The Government will be able to compare pricing received to the independent government cost estimate and/or historical pricing per techniques identified at FAR 13.106-3(a)(2). Certified Cost and Pricing Data is not required for this action.

7. A description of the market research conducted and the results. On October 31, 2024, a “Notice of Intent to Sole Source” on SAM.gov for 7 days in accordance with FAR 5.203(a)- Publicizing and Response Time. Responses from industry are due by November 7, 2024.

ARPA-E is looking to have access to a market research tool which provides data, news, and analysis on the private equity and venture capital industries. ARPA-E plans to use the platform to access data concerning company funding rounds, valuations, and other relevant financial and business information which is updated quickly with a low latency and high accuracy.

Due to the breadth of venture capital data available, the tool needs to provide comprehensive data on energy technology. Additionally, for the purposes of all offices within DOE subscribing to the web-based application be able to assist the Department of Energy with implementing due diligence models and evaluating foreign influence of perspective awardees. Due diligence includes financial, credit, and previous investment reviews among other things performed by DOE staff.

The Government leveraged internet search engines to conduct market research.

ARPA-E reviewed corporate websites and GSA schedule information to assess availability of the product. But all companies lacked one or more of the following necessary functions critical to ARPA-E:

• Round by Round deal data including both US and abroad.

• Cleantech sector focus and startup/tech-sector-only focus which is critical to

ARPA-E

• Direct data feed or API functionality

• Financial and investor contact data and dry powder the size of the database is limited

• High granularity of new company data with industry verticals and emerging space capabilities

• A flexible industry verticals classification system

8. Any other facts supporting the use of other than full and open competition. N/A currently.

9. A listing of any sources that expressed a written interest in the acquisition. N/A currently.

10. A statement of any actions the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition, if subsequent acquisitions are anticipated. N/A.

ARPA-E is constantly doing market research and due diligence with regard to its data subscriptions. This process allows ARPA-E the ability to decrease sole-source procurements and exercise every effort to assure a competitive acquisition in accordance with the Competition in contracting Act of 1984 and applicable DOE Orders.

Certification I certify that the fact and representations under my cognizance, which are included in this justification, and which form a basis for this justification, are complete and accurate.