What are Semantic Keywords?
Semantic Keywords is a powerful search capability in Harmonic that helps you discover relevant companies based on what they do. Instead of relying on exact text matches, it understands concepts and finds companies working on similar things - even if they describe their work differently.
How Do Semantic Keywords Work?
Semantic Keywords analyzes text from multiple sources - company descriptions, website text, and more - to build a rich understanding of each company's focus. This lets you find companies based on their actual capabilities, not just how they describe themselves.
Semantic Keywords vs Exact Keywords
Semantic Keywords understands concepts and relationships between words. When you search for
"Renewable Energy"the system finds companies working in solar power, wind energy, battery storage, and other sustainable technologies. This semantic understanding helps surface relevant companies even when they don't use your exact search terms.Exact Keywords matching follows a more straightforward approach, looking for specific word matches in company data. For example, searching for
"Renewable Energy"will only find companies that use those exact words in their website, description, or other web-text.
Using Semantic Keywords
Semantic Keywords can be found under the General tab when building a Company Search.
Here's how to make the most of it:
Start by describing the companies you're interested in. Harmonic will analyze your input and find companies working on related concepts and technologies. For example, if you search for
"fintech companies building ML-powered fraud detection for cross-border payments", this highly specific request will yield results for companies focused on:Payment fraud prevention
International money transfer security
Transaction monitoring platforms
ML/AI fraud detection tools
Cross-border payment infrastructure
Banking security solutions
Real-time payment verification
Once you have your initial results, use the search builder to narrow down your results. Layer on additional criteria like funding rounds, team size, location, and other specific requirements.
Tips & Best Practices
1. Be specific with searches
✅ "fintech companies using AI for payment fraud detection"
Combines multiple specific concepts to find companies at this intersection of fintech, AI, and fraud prevention
❌ "fintech"
Too broad - you'll get everything from payment apps to crypto exchanges
✅ "digital lending automation platforms"
Specific enough to focus on a clear segment while finding related innovations
2. Combine Semantic Keywords with Exact Keywords
Semantic and Exact filters are powerful on their own, but they're even better together. For example:
Semantic: "fintech companies using AI for payment fraud detection"
Exact - Contains any of: "ACH"
Exact - Contains none of: "cryptocurrency" "blockchain"
This combination helps you:
Cast a net with Semantic Keywords to find companies in the payment fraud space
Precisely filter to companies mentioning specific payment protocols
Exclude companies focused on crypto/blockchain
3. Combine Semantic Keywords with other filters
Semantic Keywords become even more powerful when used alongside other search criteria. For example:
Semantic: "AI enterprise workflow companies"
Raised: >$5M
Founder Experience: Prior companies: OpenAI
4. Results too specific? Too broad? Try tuning results!
Scope changes the threshold of what qualifies as a “semantic match,” and depending on your query, you may want to have a stricter or broader result set. For most use cases, start with
Standard: Default setting, balanced for most searches (recommended)Precise: Tighter matches, best for specific technology or market searchesBroad: Wider interpretation, ideal for exploration
Have questions, suggestions, or interesting use cases to share? Drop us a note at support@harmonic.ai. We'd love to hear how you're using Keywords!