Last reviewed: · By the pcithbook.com editorial team
If you work anywhere near private markets — a venture fund, a buyout shop, an advisory team, a corporate strategy group or a startup preparing to raise — you will hear someone say "check PitchBook". This guide explains what that actually means: what the platform is, what sits inside it, how people use it during a normal week and where its limits are. It is written by an independent team, from publicly available information, and it deliberately avoids repeating vendor statistics we cannot verify.
Key facts, as publicly stated
- What it is
- A private capital financial research platform (the vendor's own description)
- Company
- PitchBook Data, Inc., which describes itself as a Morningstar company
- Origins
- Founded in 2007 by John Gabbert; headquartered in Seattle according to company press materials
- Main products
- Desktop platform, mobile app, Excel and PowerPoint add-ins, Chrome extension, Direct Data, CRM integration, Lumonic portfolio monitoring
- Pricing model
- Quote-based subscription; no public price list — check current information with the vendor
PitchBook in one sentence
PitchBook is a paid database and research service that helps professionals find, analyse and track private companies, the investors behind them, the deals that connect them and the funds that supply the capital. Public markets have stock exchanges, regulatory filings and decades of standardised data. Private markets do not. Valuations, fund sizes, round terms and ownership stakes are often disclosed partially, late or not at all. A platform like PitchBook exists to collect those fragments, structure them and make them searchable.
That framing matters because it explains both the value and the caveats. The value is time: instead of assembling a list of growth-stage fintech companies from press releases, you filter a database. The caveat is completeness: no provider can record what was never disclosed, so every private market dataset contains gaps and estimates.
A short, verified background
Company press materials state that PitchBook was founded in 2007 by John Gabbert and is based in Seattle. In 2016 Morningstar announced that it would acquire the company, and PitchBook's own site today carries the line "a Morningstar company". Its about page lists offices beyond Seattle, including London, New York, San Francisco and Singapore. We do not repeat headcount, revenue or customer totals here because those figures change and we cannot confirm them independently.
What is inside the platform
The easiest way to understand PitchBook is to look at the kinds of records it keeps. The vendor groups its data into profiles for:
- Companies — businesses, with descriptions, financing history, investors, executives and, where available, financial information.
- Investors — venture firms, private equity sponsors, corporate investors, angels and others, with portfolios and investment preferences.
- Deals — financing rounds, buyouts, M&A transactions and exits, with terms where they are known.
- Funds — fund vehicles, vintages, sizes and, for some, performance data used for benchmarking.
- Limited partners — pensions, endowments, foundations and other allocators, with commitments where disclosed.
- Credit, debt and lenders — private credit, leveraged loans and the institutions that provide them.
- People and service providers — professionals, board members, law firms, banks and advisers linked to the deals above.
Around those records sit tools: advanced search with detailed filters, saved searches, alerts, market maps that group companies by category, analyst workspaces and a research centre containing reports and news. Our data and research guide goes deeper into each dataset and how to read it.
How the product family fits together
PitchBook is not one screen. Publicly, the vendor describes several delivery methods that suit different teams:
| Product | What it does | Typical user |
|---|---|---|
| Desktop platform | Search, screening, profiles, alerts, research centre and market maps in the browser | Analysts, associates, partners |
| Mobile app | Look up profiles and follow updates away from the desk | Partners and dealmakers on the road |
| Excel & PowerPoint add-ins | Pull data into models and slides without manual copying | Anyone building comps or pitch materials |
| Chrome extension | Surface PitchBook information while browsing company websites | Sourcing and business development teams |
| Direct Data | Delivers data by API or feed into a warehouse or cloud environment (premium) | Data, quant and engineering teams |
| CRM integration | Enriches records in a firm's CRM with PitchBook data (premium) | Deal teams running a CRM pipeline |
| Lumonic | Portfolio monitoring and reporting | Portfolio and finance teams |
The distinction between included tools and premium add-ons is important when you budget. According to the vendor's integrations FAQ, the Excel, PowerPoint and Chrome plug-ins are available to clients, while Direct Data and CRM integration are priced separately based on seats and firm type. See our pricing and plans explainer for how to prepare for that conversation.
Who uses PitchBook, and for what
The vendor's own list of use cases is a useful map of the user base. In practice, we see five recurring patterns:
- Market intelligence. Understanding how much capital is flowing into a sector, which investors are active and how valuations are trending.
- Deal sourcing. Building lists of companies that match an investment thesis and setting alerts for new rounds or leadership changes. Our venture capital workflow guide walks through this step by step.
- Due diligence and execution. Checking a target's financing history, cap table signals, comparable transactions and the advisers involved. The PE and M&A research guide covers this angle.
- Fundraising. GPs researching limited partners' commitments and mandates; founders identifying investors who back their stage and sector.
- Benchmarking and allocation. Comparing fund returns using measures such as IRR, TVPI and DPI against peer groups, and informing portfolio construction.
Reality check: a database speeds up the first 80% of research. The last 20% — calling a founder, reading a data room, testing a thesis with customers — is still human work.
Research and news beyond the database
A large share of PitchBook's public visibility comes from its research team. Recurring publications include the quarterly PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor, produced with the National Venture Capital Association and focused on US venture activity; private equity breakdowns; regional reports covering Europe and Asia-Pacific; fund performance benchmarks; public and private market indexes; league tables of active investors and advisers; and leveraged finance and private credit research from its LCD unit. The newsroom publishes articles on private equity, venture, credit and allocators, and the company runs email newsletters such as The Daily Pitch.
Many report summaries are available publicly, which is why journalists cite them often. When you quote them, cite the edition and date: quarterly figures are frequently revised as late-reported deals arrive.
Strengths and limits, stated fairly
Where it tends to help
- Breadth across private market asset classes in one interface
- Linked records: company to deal to investor to fund to LP
- Office integrations that cut manual copying
- Analyst research that adds context to raw numbers
What to keep in mind
- Private data is incomplete by nature; some values are estimates
- Quote-based pricing makes budgeting harder for small teams
- Premium delivery (feeds, CRM) costs extra
- Coverage depth can vary by region, sector and deal size
None of these points is unique to PitchBook — every private market provider faces the same disclosure problem. The useful question is not "is the data perfect?" but "is it good enough for this decision, and how do I verify the numbers that matter?"
How to evaluate it for your team
- Write five real queries you ran in the last month and test them during a trial.
- Spot-check records you know well, such as your own company or recent deals, to judge accuracy and freshness.
- Map the delivery path: browser only, Excel models, CRM or a data warehouse.
- Count seats honestly — who needs daily access and who needs occasional exports?
- Compare at least one alternative using the same queries; see our neutral comparison.
- Ask about training: the vendor offers online learning resources and analyst support for clients.
Ready to talk to the vendor?
Trials, plan contents and pricing come only from PitchBook. Read our independence note first so you know exactly what this site is — and is not.
Frequently asked questions
PitchBook is a subscription research platform focused on private capital markets. It brings together profiles of companies, investors, funds, deals, lenders and people with analyst research and news, so that dealmakers can search, filter and export information that is otherwise scattered.
PitchBook's own website describes it as a Morningstar company, and Morningstar announced its acquisition of PitchBook in 2016. For current corporate details, check the vendor's own pages.
The vendor highlights use cases across venture capital, private equity, investment banking and advisory, limited partners and asset allocators, corporate development, lenders and service providers. Founders and students also encounter it, often through an employer, accelerator or university.
No — PitchBook is a paid, quote-based subscription. The vendor offers a way to request a free trial and some public profile previews, but full access requires a contract. Universities sometimes provide access to students; ask your library or careers office.
PitchBook does not publish a price list. Its pricing page uses a request form, and the vendor explains that pricing depends on the number of seats, the type of firm and whether premium options such as Direct Data or CRM integration are added. Check current information with the vendor.
No. Venture capital is a large part of the content, but the platform also covers private equity, M&A, funds and limited partners, private credit and debt, lenders and public-market context such as indexes, along with leveraged finance research from its LCD team.
Yes. PitchBook offers an Excel add-in, a PowerPoint add-in and a Chrome extension. According to the vendor's integrations FAQ, these plug-ins are included for clients, while Direct Data feeds and CRM integration are premium additions.
Private market datasets are generally assembled from sources such as regulatory filings, press releases, news and information that firms choose to share, combined with research staff and technology. Because some fields depend on voluntary disclosure, ask the vendor about methodology for the fields that matter to you and cross-check important numbers.
Recurring publications include the quarterly PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor on US venture activity, private equity breakdowns, regional reports for Europe and Asia-Pacific, fund performance benchmarks and leveraged credit research. Many summaries are published openly on the vendor's site.
No. pcithbook.com is an independent informational guide. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by PitchBook Data, Inc., and nothing here is an official statement from the vendor.
Where to go next
If you are new to the terminology, the getting started guide and glossary defines the terms used in fund reports and deal profiles. If you already know the basics, jump to the workflow guide for your role. And whatever you read here, remember the rule that runs through the whole site: check current information with the vendor before you rely on it.