Crunchbase

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Crunchbase
Crunchbase wordmark dark blue.svg
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)
URLcrunchbase.com
CommercialYes
RegistrationOptional
LaunchedJuly 2007; 14 years ago (2007-07)
Current statusOnline

Crunchbase is a platform for finding business information about private and public companies.

Crunchbase information includes investments and funding information, founding members and individuals in leadership positions, mergers and acquisitions, news, and industry trends. Originally built to track startups, the Crunchbase website contains information on public and private companies on a global scale.

Crunchbase sources its data in four ways: the venture program,[1] machine learning, an in-house data team, and the Crunchbase community. Members of the public can submit information to the Crunchbase database. These submissions are subject to registration, social validation, and are often reviewed by a moderator before being accepted for publication.

History[]

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

Crunchbase was originally founded in 2007 by Michael Arrington, as a place to track the startups that parent company TechCrunch featured in articles. From 2007 to September 2015, TechCrunch maintained control of the Crunchbase database.

In September 2010, AOL acquired TechCrunch and Crunchbase as one of TechCrunch's portfolio companies.

In November 2013, AOL entered into a dispute with start-up 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] As of August 2019, a snapshot of the 2013 dataset is still available for download under the CC-BY license on the Crunchbase website.[4]

In 2014, Crunchbase added incubators, venture capital partners, and a new leaderboard feature to the startup database.[5]

In 2015, Crunchbase separated from AOL/Verizon/TechCrunch to become a private entity.[6] In September 2015, in conjunction with the spin out, Crunchbase announced $6.5 million in funding raised from Emergence Capital.[7] This was shortly followed with a follow-up round of $2 million in November 2015. In 2016, the company rebranded from CrunchBase to Crunchbase and launched its first product: Crunchbase Pro.[8] In April 2017, Crunchbase announced an $18 million Series B from Mayfield Fund.[9] At the same time, Crunchbase launched two new products – Crunchbase Enterprise and Crunchbase for Applications.[10]

In 2018, Crunchbase launched "Crunchbase Marketplace".[11] In October 2019, Crunchbase announced an $30 million Series C led by Omers Ventures. Existing backers Emergence, Mayfield, Cowboy Ventures and Verizon also participated.[12]

Products[]

Crunchbase for Applications
A tool allowing users to integrate Crunchbase data into their product, for marketing purposes.[citation needed]
Crunchbase Enterprise
A tool for typical business intelligence and analytics queries, such as setting up and following investment trends, identifying and tracking growth industries, and identifying similar companies to their own.[13]
Crunchbase Marketplace
A tool allowing users to search and analyze companies with integrated third-party data sources, including additional data like web traffic, tech stack, and IT budgets.[citation needed]
Crunchbase News
A digital news site reporting on private markets, startups, founders and investors.[14]
Crunchbase Pro
A more in-depth search tool than Crunchbase Enterprise, allowing tracking of market trends, industries, people, companies, and investors.[14]

References[]

  1. ^ "Announcing The CrunchBase Venture Program". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-06-14.
  2. ^ Kravets, David. "AOL Smacks Startup for Using CrunchBase Content It Gave Away". Wired. Retrieved 2018-06-14.
  3. ^ "Startup Settles Creative Commons Licensing Dispute with Tech Database" (Press release). Electronic Frontier Foundation. 2013-12-12. Retrieved 2019-08-17.
  4. ^ "2013 Snapshot". crunchbase.com. Retrieved 2019-08-17.
  5. ^ "CrunchBase Grows Its Global Reach, Adding Incubators, VC Partners And A New Leaderboard Feature". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-06-14.
  6. ^ "AOL/Verizon Completes Spinout Of CrunchBase Funded By Emergence Capital". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-06-14.
  7. ^ "Emergence Capital Partners With AOL to Spin Out CrunchBase and Invests in Stand-Alone Company". Yahoo! Finance. Retrieved 2018-06-14.
  8. ^ "CrunchBase Pro brings new search and analysis features for power users". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-06-14.
  9. ^ "With $18 Million Series B Funding, Crunchbase Accelerates Development of New SaaS Business Products and Focuses on Diversity in Hiring to Grow" (Press release). Business Wire. Retrieved 2018-06-14.
  10. ^ Zakrzewski, Cat (2017-04-06). "Crunchbase Expands Paid Services, Raises $18 Million". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2018-06-14.
  11. ^ "Crunchbase opens a marketplace for 3rd-party data in bid to be the 'master database for companies'". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-06-14.
  12. ^ "Crunchbase raises $30M more to double down on its ambition to be a 'LinkedIn for company data'". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2019-11-01.
  13. ^ "Crunchbase raises $18M, debuts Enterprise business intelligence, plans 'Marketplace' for 3rd party data". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-06-14.
  14. ^ Jump up to: a b "Crunchbase Expands Paid Services, Raises $18 Million". The Wall Street Journal. April 6, 2017. Retrieved July 14, 2021.(subscription required)

External links[]

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