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Crunchbase

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Crunchbase
Type of site
Data as a service
Available inEnglish
HeadquartersSan Francisco, California
Owner
  • TechCrunch (2007–2015)
  • Crunchbase, Inc. (2015–present)
Created byMichael Arrington
Employees153 (2019)
URLwww.crunchbase.com Edit this at Wikidata
CommercialYes
RegistrationOptional
LaunchedMay 17, 2007; 18 years ago (2007-05-17)
Current statusOnline

Crunchbase is a comprehensive database providing information on private and public companies. Its content is compiled through a combination of live company data, artificial intelligence, and market activity contributed by a user base of over 80 million.

History

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Crunchbase's former logo, used before the name was changed from CrunchBase to Crunchbase

Founded in 2007 by Michael Arrington, Crunchbase was originally established as a supplementary database to track the various startups featured in articles on TechCrunch. In September 2010, the platform was acquired by AOL as part of its broader acquisition of the TechCrunch network. [1]

In November 2013, AOL entered into a dispute with startup Pro Populi over the company's use of the entire Crunchbase dataset in apps that Pro Populi developed despite having distributed the data under the Creative Commons CC-BY attribution license. Pro Populi was represented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.[2] AOL eventually conceded that Pro Populi could continue to use the dataset but adopted the CC BY-NC license for future revisions.[3] A snapshot of the 2013 dataset is still available for download under the CC-BY license on the Crunchbase website.[‡ 1]

In 2014, Crunchbase added incubators and venture capital partners to the startup database.[4]

In 2015, Crunchbase went private, separating from AOL, Verizon, and TechCrunch. Crunchbase then announced the raise of $8.5 million in funding.[5] In 2016, the company rebranched by removing the camel casing of its name (with the "B" in "Base" now being rendered as a small letter), and launched its first product, the paid database Crunchbase Pro.[6] In April 2017, Crunchbase announced an $18 million Series B from Mayfield Fund.[7] At the same time, Crunchbase launched two new products – Crunchbase Enterprise and Crunchbase for Applications.[8]

In 2018, Crunchbase launched Crunchbase Marketplace, providing subscriptions to data from third parties.[9] The following year, Crunchbase announced a $30 million Series C led by Omers Ventures.[10]

Over time, Crunchbase expanded its role in several phases: initially serving as a data resource for investors, later licensing its dataset to professional platforms such as LinkedIn, Glassdoor, and NASDAQ, and eventually creating integrations with workflow tools including Salesforce[‡ 2], HubSpot[‡ 3], and Outreach[‡ 4]. These partnerships and integrations fueled steady growth, with the platform’s user base surpassing 80 million by the mid-2020s.

In 2025, Crunchbase launched an integration with Clay, a data enrichment and sales engagement platform, enabling users to access Crunchbase’s company insights and predictions directly within Clay workflows.[11] That same year, Crunchbase partnered with Perplexity, making Crunchbase’s firmographic and funding data available within Perplexity Enterprise Pro.[12] Crunchbase also partnered with Databricks, making its predictive private company intelligence available through the Databricks Marketplace for use within analytics environments.[‡ 5]

Products

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Crunchbase’s core offerings include:[‡ 6]

Crunchbase Pro

A paid subscription service that offers advanced search filters, analysis tools, and alerts for monitoring private companies.

Crunchbase Business

Provides additional features for teams, including data export capabilities, CRM integration (such as Salesforce and HubSpot), and API access..

Crunchbase API

Data Enrichment - Enrich your tools with Crunchbase’s best-in-class proprietary data and predictions.

Data Licensing - Bring Crunchbase’s best-in-class proprietary data and predictions to your customers.

References

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  1. ^ Sweney, Mark (September 29, 2010). "AOL buys TechCrunch". The Guardian.
  2. ^ Kravets, David (November 2013). "AOL Smacks Startup for Using CrunchBase Content It Gave Away". Wired. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  3. ^ "Startup Settles Creative Commons Licensing Dispute with Tech Database" (Press release). Electronic Frontier Foundation. December 12, 2013. Retrieved August 17, 2019.
  4. ^ Shieber, Jonathan (September 10, 2014). "CrunchBase Grows Its Global Reach, Adding Incubators, VC Partners And A New Leaderboard Feature". TechCrunch. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  5. ^ "AOL/Verizon Completes Spinout Of CrunchBase Funded By Emergence Capital". TechCrunch. September 22, 2015. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  6. ^ "CrunchBase Pro brings new search and analysis features for power users". TechCrunch. September 12, 2016. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  7. ^ "Crunchbase raises $18M, debuts Enterprise business intelligence, plans 'Marketplace' for 3rd party data". TechCrunch. April 6, 2017. Retrieved December 2, 2021.
  8. ^ Zakrzewski, Cat (April 6, 2017). "Crunchbase Expands Paid Services, Raises $18 Million". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  9. ^ "Crunchbase opens a marketplace for 3rd-party data in bid to be the 'master database for companies'". TechCrunch. February 21, 2018. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  10. ^ "Crunchbase raises $30M more to double down on its ambition to be a 'LinkedIn for company data'". TechCrunch. October 31, 2019. Retrieved November 1, 2019.
  11. ^ "Crunchbase x Clay integration | Clay.com". www.clay.com. Retrieved December 4, 2025.
  12. ^ "Perplexity Enterprise Pro - Crunchbase and FactSet Integrations". www.perplexity.ai. Archived from the original on September 5, 2025. Retrieved December 4, 2025.

Primary sources

In the text, these references are preceded by a double dagger (‡):

  1. ^ "2013 Snapshot". crunchbase.com. Retrieved August 17, 2019.
  2. ^ "Act on Accounts Faster: The New Crunchbase Salesforce Integration". about.crunchbase.com. Retrieved December 4, 2025.
  3. ^ "Build and Track Pipeline with Crunchbase's New HubSpot Integration". about.crunchbase.com. Retrieved December 4, 2025.
  4. ^ "Discover, Qualify and Connect with Prospects: Introducing Crunchbase's Outreach Integration". about.crunchbase.com. Retrieved December 4, 2025.
  5. ^ "Crunchbase Meets Databricks - Crunchbase". about.crunchbase.com. Retrieved December 4, 2025.
  6. ^ "Product Pricing". Crunchbase. Retrieved December 4, 2025.
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