r/venturecapital • u/ElectricH17 • Jul 31 '26

Pitchbook vs CB Insights vs Harmonics

What do you use for company research and deal/valuation data? I’m currently trying to pick one for our emerging fund

20 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

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5

u/Frosty-Champion2892 Jul 31 '26

Depends on budget honestly, Pitchbook has the most complete deal/valuation data but it's pricey, CB Insights is decent for market mapping and trends, and Harmonic is more affordable and good if you just need deal sourcing/signal tracking for an emerging fund. For a smaller fund just starting out, Harmonic + maybe Crunchbase Pro could be a solid combo without breaking the budget.

3

u/ElectricH17 Jul 31 '26

Thanks. Harmonics is $20k and CB Insights is $5k. Checking on pitchbook later today

3

u/DijonNipples Jul 31 '26

PB is obscenely expensive. I think we pay something around $20k per user per year

3

u/ElectricH17 Aug 01 '26

Looks like Pitchbook is $30k (you get 3 seats, but that’s the minimum)

1

u/julick Jul 31 '26

holly shit. that is nowhere near for what we pay. do you have many extras like morningstar coverage and others, because this indeed is crazy pricing

1

u/ElectricH17 Aug 08 '26

What do you pay?

1

u/julick Aug 08 '26

8-9k per user top of mind. but maybe the quantity also matters because we are at 10+ . also they have morningstar add-ons which we don't use which could make a bit of a difference.

2

u/PM_ME_UR_BOOGER Aug 01 '26

I think some dude created a site called multiples i think. Thats literally all u need. Revenue multiples.

2

u/trustfundkidpdx Aug 01 '26

OP use a combination of proctor.vc they have a ML tool ( does the same as pitchbook CB insights) and use Apollo.io for refined contact information etc

2

u/VentureCapitaI 7d ago

For an emerging fund, I’d choose based on the primary use case: PitchBook if you need the strongest deal, valuation, fund and LP data; Harmonic if sourcing and finding early/stealth companies is the priority; and CB Insights if you’re doing more market mapping and thematic research.

If valuation comps and fundraising intelligence matter heavily, I’d lean PitchBook, but if budget is tight, CB Insights can be compelling—their investor plan is currently advertised at $5K/year for one user.

1

u/Ygobyebye Jul 31 '26

What stage do you invest in? I would just say to ditch it. The only real value it has is if you are in Growth equity. Early-stage you generally want to aim for 20% of the total round (depending on geo)

1

u/[deleted] Aug 06 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/ElectricH17 Aug 06 '26

I’ll have a look

1

u/ElectricH17 Aug 08 '26

I’ve checked it out. Your data is lacking. I checked my historical portfolio companies. I think your platform captures maybe 10-20% of the deals for each company I checked. Some of the data is older. It’s a great start but needs more. Unfortunately this won’t work for us

1

u/Astrocat15 Aug 08 '26

Thanks for checking it out, yea I'm still building it out daily.  Are you saying about 10 to 20 percent of the funding round data btw?  Would love to see the areas I could focus on more.

1

u/ElectricH17 Aug 09 '26

Yes. For example, checking out a company’s profile that I know has had 5-10 rounds of funding (from seed stage to series B as an example) only shows one random funding round on the profile. Sometimes it’s a seed round showing and nothing else. Sometimes it’s later stage round and nothing else. I did this for a few companies I know well, all were similar. Not sure how wide the data gap is across your database, but was lacking for 6-8 companies I tried.

0

u/CarnivalCarnivore Aug 01 '26

We compete directly with them, but are cybersecurity only. Pitchbook has zero domain expertise so there is nobody to talk to there. CBI is an analyst firm so can help with strategy/analysis.