Top 6 Private-Company Deal-Sourcing Databases Used by PE & VC Firms (2025)

Top 6 Private-Company Deal-Sourcing Databases Used by PE & VC Firms (2025)

If your origination calendar still assumes 45-day closes, you’re out of date. For most lower-middle-market processes, 60–90 days from LOI to closing is the new normal. The fundraising picture hasn’t helped: global buyout and growth capital formation has remained sluggish through September 2025, with fewer funds closing and longer time on the road than pre-2022 norms.

In that environment, winning proprietary deals is a timing problem disguised as a data problem. The database that helps you detect live intent—and keeps your sender reputation clean—beats the one with the longest spreadsheet every time.

This editorial revisits the six platforms buy-side teams actually use—PitchBook, S&P Capital IQ Pro, SourceScrub, Grata (inside Datasite), CB Insights, and Altss—with current ownership changes, product trajectories, and geo-specific usage patterns. We keep your slug and structure intact while reflecting the biggest shift of 2025: Grata and SourceScrub now share a parent.

The single biggest change: consolidation under Datasite

Two of the best-known company-discovery tools now sit inside the same corporate umbrella. Datasite acquired Grata in June 2025, backed by a significant investment commitment from its sponsor. Then, on August 8, 2025, Datasite announced the acquisition of SourceScrub and publicly said SourceScrub’s data and capabilities would be integrated with Grata.

What that means for deal teams:

• Expect tighter integration between Grata’s semantic company matching and SourceScrub’s event/roster intake. You should see faster meeting calendars around big weeks in New York, Chicago, Austin, London, Frankfurt, Dubai, Singapore, and Hong Kong—once the combined dataset settles.
• Pricing and packaging will likely trend enterprise, because Datasite is aligning sourcing with its broader M&A workflow stack (VDR, diligence, automation). Budget owners should anticipate bundles rather than point pricing.
• Short-term, plan for migration and dedupe chores as schemas converge. In return, your end-of-year and 2026 origination sprints may run with fewer CSV gymnastics.

Keep this consolidation in mind as you read the platform-by-platform breakdown below.

Quick rubric (what actually matters in late 2025)

Speed to live intent
Which product alerts you this week that a founder hired a sell-side CFO, filed a registrar change, or posted travel around a relevant conference?

Decision-maker clarity & deliverability
Can you identify who signs—and reach them without burning your domain?

Geo reliability
Can it handle the nuances of U.S./Canada, UK/EU, MENA, APAC, and LatAm without forcing you into a one-size-fits-all playbook?

Workflow fit
Does it eliminate toggling—research to list to outreach—or does it create more CSVs to babysit?

Total cost to value
Not what it costs, but what it books (meetings) relative to team hours.

1) PitchBook — the broad-spectrum baseline

What it is
The atlas most teams keep open all day: millions of companies, investors, funds, deals, and people. As PitchBook continues to expand its private-company universe into the multi-million range, it remains the default source for comps, investor histories, and who-invested-with-whom context.

Where it shines

• Company archaeology & comps across the U.S., UK/EU, and APAC. If your partner wants three clean pages of market map and precedent deals for IC, PitchBook is still the fastest route.
• Network triangulation for co-investors, advisors, and banks consistently present in your niche.
• Analyst-friendly plug-ins/APIs that export smoothly into your models and memos.

Where it stalls

• Intent latency in the sub-$25m EBIT band. The tell-tale signs that a founder is leaning sell-side often surface elsewhere first.
• Manual re-tagging for mid-market export sets—especially if you’re slicing by tight subsectors (e.g., DACH specialty maintenance vs. Southeast U.S. route-based industrial services).

Bottom line
Use PitchBook to align the room on what the market looks like. Pair it with something that tells you who is ready this week.

2) S&P Capital IQ Pro — credit-grade depth

What it is
A cross-asset platform listing tens of millions of private companies inside the same pane analysts use for publics, with risk scores and supply-chain mapping that help you think like a credit investor even when you’re buying control.

Where it shines

• Standardized private financials and credit models: ideal for minority recaps, continuation vehicles, and structured paths where public-style rigor helps your IC.
• Supply-chain context (vendor/customer concentration) that matters in North America, UK/EU, and Japan when diligence teams push on durability.
• Upper mid-market reliability—the closer your target looks to a public, the more useful the data.

Where it stalls

• Below the upper mid-market, ownership-change breadcrumbs and early intent can be thin.
• Seat economics can sting first-time funds or smaller growth teams.

Bottom line
If your center of gravity sits above classic LMM, Capital IQ Pro brings structure and comparability. For first looks in artisanal niches, you’ll still want another engine.

3) SourceScrub — event-driven pipelines at scale (now under Datasite)

What it is
The long-tail company finder built on hundreds of thousands of conference rosters, directories, and niche sources. In early 2025 it picked up another Private Equity Wire award for deal origination tech, reflecting persistent strength in event intelligence. In August 2025, Datasite said it would acquire SourceScrub and integrate it with Grata.

Where it shines

• Conference/roster capture across the U.S. and Europe, with meaningful coverage in MENA and APAC. If your team lives on planes, SourceScrub fills calendars.
• Growth alerts (threshold-crossing logic for headcount and web signals) that nudge you when a business begins to look like a platform.
• Obscure niches—the weirder the sector, the more it pays off.

Where it stalls

• CSV gravity. Many teams export → dedupe → verify → route to CRM. It’s workable, but requires list hygiene and a deliverability layer.
• No LP lens. Great for targets; little help for synchronizing with fundraising.

What consolidation changes
Expect deeper integrations with Grata’s semantic filters and Datasite workflows. In exchange, anticipate bundle pricing and a transition period for schemas and lists.

4) Grata (inside Datasite) — semantic matchmaking with enterprise wind at its back

What it is
A mid-market discovery engine that parses how companies actually make money (e.g., “recurring-revenue industrial services”) rather than keyword stubs. Datasite acquired Grata in June 2025, backed by a large investment commitment from its owner, and has since moved to fold SourceScrub into the portfolio.

Where it shines

• Business-model filters that let origination teams search like partners (“asset-light field maintenance” or “industrial software with SMB ACV”).
• Deal Network and Datasite adjacency that increase serendipity for live mandates.
• Speed for quick-strike discovery in U.S./Canada and UK/EU.

Where it stalls

• Enterprise packaging is rising—budget owners should expect bundles as Grata/SourceScrub converge inside Datasite.
• Roadmap dependency on Datasite’s broader priorities—great if you’re all-in; slower if you’re not.

What consolidation changes
If integration goes as announced, expect a single pane that marries semantic search with event/roster data and Datasite’s execution rails, reducing CSV churn.

5) CB Insights — momentum radar for thesis builders

What it is
A global tech/venture intelligence graph that layers patents, hiring spikes, investor activity, and media sentiment. The 2025 AI 100 refreshed watchers’ lists of breakout startups, with useful mid-year drill-downs.

Where it shines

• Theme selection—AI infra, autonomy, climate analytics, industrial digitization. Strategy offsites in San Francisco, London, Singapore run better with this context.
• Analyst primers that compress weeks of desk research into a morning.

Where it stalls

• Change-of-control targeting isn’t the center of gravity; ownership granularity outside tech can be uneven.
• Seat stacking—costs rise with AI add-ons.

Bottom line
Use it to decide where to hunt. Hand the who’s ready now to a sourcing engine.

6) Altss — LPs and deals, synchronized in real time

What it is
An OSINT-native platform built on 2025/26 technology, designed for velocity. Altss streams hourly public signals on founders and companies—regulatory filings, principal moves, stealth domains, first-party remarks, and conference footprints—then pairs that with a live allocator lens across family offices and institutions. In practical terms, your origination and your fundraising stop living on separate planets.

What teams like right now

• Live intent you can cite in a 90-second opener (“June: added a private-credit sleeve; August: hired a PM from X”).
• Funding-motive tags (growth capex, recap liquidity, strategic exit) that make your first note relevant.
• Dual-lens search—scan verified LPs (including 9,000+ family offices) and qualified targets side-by-side.
• Deliverability discipline—Altss emphasizes in-platform use (no mass CSV/API), continuous re-verification and client vetting to keep contacts responsive.

Roadmap you can plan around

• Startup & PE-portfolio module (October 2025 beta): ownership-shift alerts and KPI snapshots within minutes.
• Relationship Graph (Q4 2025): GP–LP–founder ties with strength scoring to prioritize warm lanes.

Why that matters in 2025
With diligence windows stretched and fundraising slower (many funds still hovering around 17–19 months to final close depending on cohort and region), the advantage goes to teams that can spot intent early and pull the right check in the same market week. Altss is purpose-built for that synchronization.

The market backdrop you’re operating in

• Fundraising: Through September, global buyout/growth fundraising is still below 2024’s pace, with substantially fewer closures; time-to-close has improved slightly in H1 but remains elevated relative to 2020–2022.
• Deal/exits: There are green shoots—Q3 deal value has spiked versus earlier quarters, and exits are up year-to-date—but allocators remain selective.
• Holding periods: Most data shows longer average holds than pre-pandemic; underwriting requires more operator levers and clearer paths to liquidity.

All of that pushes you toward platforms that trade coverage for timing.

Geo-specific guidance (what works where)

United States & Canada (New York, Boston, Miami, Chicago, Austin, Toronto, Vancouver)
Founders respond to recent, concrete facts—CFO/CRO hires, first enterprise logos, supplier wins—and to event-week convenience. Pair an atlas (PitchBook) with a timing engine (Altss; or SourceScrub/Grata now that Datasite is aligning them) to avoid “we reached out three weeks late.”

United Kingdom & European Union (London, Paris, Frankfurt, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Madrid)
Registries and governance breadcrumbs are reliable. Combine Capital IQ Pro (supply-chain context) with Grata semantics; fold in SourceScrub for event rosters around London/Frankfurt weeks. When it’s time to raise, you’ll want an allocator lens to avoid calendar stalls.

Middle East (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Doha)
Calendars cluster around summits—pre-event booking is everything. Tools that verify who will be in town outperform generic lists. With family-office capital still active but selective, synchronize meetings with allocator signals. (Fundraising through September remains tough globally; leave room for multiple touchpoints.)

Asia-Pacific (Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Sydney)
Repeatability and operator levers are scrutinized. Use CB Insights for theme radar, Grata for model filters, and a timing layer for personnel moves and event footprints.

Latin America (São Paulo, Mexico City, Santiago, Bogotá)
Structured access, co-underwrites, and local operator references accelerate trust. Source discovery plus allocator timing is a better combo than contact volume.

What consolidation means for your stack in 2026

Datasite’s position: With Grata in the fold and SourceScrub being integrated, Datasite is moving to connect data → automation → execution. Expect stronger native hand-offs from discovery to VDR/diligence, and more embedded “Deal Network” dynamics as Datasite leverages its client base.

Your choice: If you live inside Datasite for sell-side or buy-side process work already, the convenience of a single pane will be real. If you run a lean team that optimizes for first contact timing and funding alignment, you may still want a dedicated timing engine for LP signals and day-zero intent.

How to run a fair, two-week bake-off (late-2025 edition)

Day 1–2 — Define the hunting ground

• Sector/subsector, revenue and EBIT bands, control/minority posture, co-underwrite appetite.
• Codify 6–8 signals that change timing (new CFO + auditor change; registrar filing; intent-heavy job posts; confirmed travel; board minutes; first enterprise wins).

Day 3–5 — Force the intent test

• Ask each vendor for 40–60 targets that match your thesis, each with two date-stamped signals and a named decision-maker.
• If you’re traveling (e.g., London/Dubai weeks), ask for attendee-grade visibility to pre-book.

Day 6–8 — Send measured, evidence-led notes

• Five to ten per day per cohort. One line of fit, two facts, one clear ask. No attachments on first touch.
• Track bounces (<0.5% if your domain is authenticated and data is verified), replies (do they acknowledge your facts?), and days-to-calendar.

Day 9–10 — Call it by numbers

• Keep the platform that generates fewer bounces, more evidence-aware replies, and faster meetings—including pre-event bookings.

Aim for these benchmarks

• Reply rate: high single to low double digits on evidence-led notes
• Qualified meeting conversion: ≥25%
• Time to calendar (warm city): ≤10 business days
• Bounce rate: <0.5% with verified contacts and clean sender hygiene
• Diligence cadence: a two-stage checklist calibrated to 60–90 days in LMM

Fit by firm type (with 2025 realities baked in)

First-time & emerging managers

• Use PitchBook/CBI for the narrative; use a timing engine to book meetings. If you’re simultaneously raising, a dual-lens platform that aligns targets with LP liquidity pockets is the cleanest way to compress your calendar.

Core LMM PE

• SourceScrub/Grata for scale and pattern match; a timing engine for “who’s ready this week?”—especially when you also run a family-office LP book. As Datasite knits things together, expect better native hand-offs to execution.

Growth equity & crossover

• CB Insights for wedge selection; Grata for business-model filters; a timing platform for founder readiness + allocator windows.

Multi-strategy platforms

• Keep PitchBook/S&P as a universal truth spine; plug SourceScrub/Grata by vertical; standardize a timing layer across geos so sector pods behave consistently.

Balanced verdicts, company by company

PitchBook
Indispensable for market mapping and internal alignment. Not built to alert you when the founder decides this month is the time to talk.

S&P Capital IQ Pro
Brings public-company rigor to private targets and shines in the upper mid-market. Below that, you’ll still want a first-look engine.

SourceScrub (Datasite)
The best roster vacuum now has enterprise wind at its back. Expect stronger meeting density around event weeks; be prepared for schema changes as it merges with Grata.

Grata (Datasite)
Semantic filters that match how partners think about business models. Inside Datasite, expect a longer runway for integrations—and bundle pricing.

CB Insights
Great for deciding where to hunt next and for educating the room on frontier momentum. Hand off to a sourcing engine for change-of-control reality.

Altss
The only platform on this list that purpose-builds for the two constraints of 2025: longer diligence windows and slower fundraising. Hourly founder/company OSINT plus a live LP lens means you can catch intent while it’s warm and pull the right check in the same city and week. That synchronization—more than any single feature—explains why teams use it to accelerate both origination and capital formation when calendars are tight.

Final word

You won’t win late-2025 by counting more companies. You’ll win by seeing intent first—and marrying it to liquidity that can move while the signal is still warm. PitchBook, Capital IQ Pro, SourceScrub, Grata, and CB Insights each solve a real problem. But if your Monday issue is “we learn two weeks late,” and your Tuesday issue is “we can’t assemble the right check fast enough,” you need a stack that compresses both.

The consolidation under Datasite argues for a smoother discovery → execution workflow in 2026. The rise of OSINT-native tooling argues for a faster intent → meeting → capital loop right now. Choose accordingly—and judge every platform by the same metric: How many qualified meetings did it book, with how little friction, in how many days?