CB Insights is a platform for private company ratings and intelligence, positioned on its official website as helping users find their next investment, acquisition, partner, or customer.
Purpose The platform is centered on company discovery, analysis, tracking, and decision support, serving scenarios such as investment, M&A, business development, corporate strategy, market research and intelligence, and digital and IT strategy. The official website states that it is used by Fortune 1000 deal teams and lists applicable areas including corporate venture capital, sales and business development, venture capital, product strategy, corporate strategy, market research and intelligence, and digital and IT strategy.
Key capabilities
- Product forms: the Strategy Terminal predictive AI web app for company discovery, analysis, and tracking; mobile app; browser extension that can analyze a company while browsing its website; agent teams that can be used for company scouting, due diligence, new business acquisition, M&A, etc., and can be used within the Strategy Terminal or independently; ChatCBI™ strategy large model, driven by predictive data and analytics; company analysis agent group for analyzing companies and their investors and business relationships.
- Company and market data: 13 million+ private company profiles, predictive intelligence data, double-verified; 1,700+ tech market rankings that rank, score, and compare market entrants, and can compare reasons for winning, execution, funding, etc.; market rankings cover taxonomies such as competitors, markets, and business models; company profile data comes from startups, customers, investors, and global public and non-public sources; private company revenue comes directly from startups and public and non-public sources; public company financials include earnings reports, stock price performance, etc.; media and patent tracking and historical databases; analyst briefings, startup customer interview transcripts, including briefing materials.
- Scores and signals: the Mosaic Score measures health and growth potential, including sub-scores such as growth, financial strength, industry health, and management team strength; business maturity measures the ability to compete and partner; exit probability is split by IPO and M&A; customer sentiment includes customer satisfaction scores and renewal likelihood; business relationships reveal customers, partners, and suppliers, reflecting strategic and sales opportunities; funding and valuation provide the complete history of companies and investors.
- Research: a senior human research team covering key industries and technologies, including artificial intelligence, blockchain and crypto, etc., providing recent research, research webinars, etc.
- Integrations and development: MCP integration can connect data to users' large language models; developer portal; API and data feeds, double-verified and continuously refreshed; Microsoft 365 Copilot Prebuilt connectors, available in Copilot and Copilot agents; accessible in Snowflake and optimized for AI; Salesforce CRM can add CB Insights data to Salesforce records and agents; A2A and MCP support make AI smarter.
- Security and privacy: SOC 2, GDPR, etc., and user data is not used to train models.
How to use Workflows described on the official website include: Set strategy, first look at the big picture and then focus, identify the most promising markets based on analyst perspectives, funding trends, and talent movements, and analyze competitor activity through strategy maps; screen potential targets, filter 13 million companies by dozens of attributes, get similar company recommendations based on product and customer overlap, and track top founders and technical talent to discover startups before they launch; test fit, confirm strategic alignment in technology, market, and business model, assess traction using customers, partners, hiring, patents, news, etc. and cite sources, and obtain insider information from founders and operators; track the flow of capital, covering 1.5 million deals with sources indicated, set pricing using revenue multiples and cap tables, and the official website states that 20% of deals come directly from investor reports; choose winners, challenge arguments with analyst ratings, review leadership teams with past performance signals, and discover inflection points with Mosaic, a proprietary health score supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation; time outreach, track signals that reveal changes in a company's trajectory, contact companies based on predictions of likely funding windows, and generate instant insights such as reconnaissance reports.
Use cases
- Corporate M&A: secure key capabilities for the M&A pipeline, and the official website states a 2.8x increase in acquisitions.
- Corporate venture capital: find hot startups that need channels and brand, and the official website states a 6x increase in investments.
- Business development: partner with new disruptors before competitors do, and the official website states a 4.5x increase in partnerships.
- Strategy and innovation: decide which markets to enter and what to prototype, and the official website states 70% faster revenue growth.
- Sales and business development: plan territories around companies expected to drive growth, and the official website states a 10% to 20% increase in new pipeline.
- Consulting: serve clients with a complete view of the technology landscape, and the official website states 25% larger deal sizes.
Limitations The official website does not specify exact values for specific fees, pricing, free quotas, compatible platform versions, data update frequency, usage steps for each feature, or performance guarantees. The above information that is not provided is not yet available.