CB Insights alternatives: how aVenture compares
If you are looking for a CB Insights alternative, start with who does the research: an enterprise strategy team or one person. aVenture is a research database for investors, founders, and analysts that keeps one linked record per company, with funding rounds, investors, people, products, competitors, and news mentions.
By William Callahan · Published · Updated
What is the best CB Insights alternative?
It depends on what you need. For research on specific venture-backed startups, aVenture fits: as of October 2026 it tracks over 110,000 companies, each linked to its products, competitors, investors, people, and news. For sector lists already classified worldwide, Tracxn fits. For startup discovery inside a fund's CRM, Harmonic fits. CB Insights is the better choice when a corporate strategy or innovation team uses market maps, trend forecasts, and scored vendor lists. It monitors more than 11 million companies, and enterprise tiers often cost $60,000 or more a year.
What CB Insights is
The Tech Intelligence Platform is the main subscription from CB Insights, founded in 2010 in New York. As of October 2026, it monitors more than 11 million private and public companies. It covers funding rounds, financials, partnerships, hiring patterns, intellectual property, and competitive dynamics. Its models score company health, predict winners, and flag emerging technology trends across AI, fintech, healthcare, and other categories.
Built-in AI agents generate target lists, investment memos, scouting reports, and hiring analyses. Subscribers include venture and private equity investors, corporate development and innovation teams, investment bankers, consultants, and angels. Enterprise tiers often cost $60,000 or more a year.
- Scoring models, predictive signals, and analyst-built market maps help teams decide which markets to watch next.
- Scouting reports, memo generation, and vendor comparisons match the work of corporate development teams.
- Hiring, IP, and partnership signals on more than 11 million companies give it far more coverage than aVenture has today.
aVenture vs CB Insights
Counts and prices are as of October 2026.
| Dimension | aVenture | CB Insights |
|---|---|---|
| Core focus | Venture-backed company research | Emerging technology market intelligence |
| Coverage | Over 110,000 companies, mostly venture-backed and US-based | 11M+ private and public companies |
| Main output | Linked company profiles | Market maps, scores, and research briefs |
| AI features | AI agent research pipelines | AI agents for memos, scouting, target lists |
| Products and competitors | Product records linked to competing products, with comparison tables | Category maps and competitive dynamics |
| People | Career timelines linked to companies | Hiring patterns and signals |
| Pricing | Free plan; paid plans from $49 a month | Enterprise tiers often $60,000+ a year |
| Typical buyer | Individual researchers and investors | Enterprise strategy and innovation teams |
- CB Insights wins on company count, with more than 11 million companies.
- CB Insights wins on market maps, trend forecasts, and company health scores.
- CB Insights wins for large teams that share research across an organization.
- aVenture wins when you need one startup's funding rounds, founder career timelines, products, and competing products on one profile.
- aVenture wins on price for an individual: an enterprise tier needs an approved budget line, and aVenture has a free plan.
Other CB Insights alternatives
Figures are as of October 2026.
The PitchBook Platform comes from PitchBook Data, founded in 2007 in Seattle, which sells private capital markets data to institutions: company profiles, deal histories, fund performance, investor activity, and LP commitments. It delivers them through the web, an Excel plugin, an API, and a Word integration, on an enterprise contract priced by quote.
Tracxn, founded in 2012 in Bangalore, covers 7.1M+ companies across 3,000+ feeds and 55,300+ taxonomies, curated by analysts plus technology. It serves 1,000+ customers in 50+ countries and suits listing the companies in a sector worldwide.
Harmonic, founded in 2020 in San Francisco, covers 35M+ companies and 195M+ professional profiles with real-time signals, the Scout AI agent, a Chrome extension, and REST and GraphQL APIs. Its customers include Lightspeed, NEA, Accel, and Techstars.
AlphaSense Market Intelligence comes from AlphaSense, founded in 2011 in New York, which offers semantic search across earnings calls, SEC filings, news, and research. It serves banks, asset managers, and the Fortune 500 on an enterprise subscription priced by quote.
How to switch from CB Insights to aVenture
- Collect your company list. Export the names and websites of the companies on your watchlists and scouting reports.
- Match each company by website.
aventure entities lookup-exact get --url https://stripe.comfinds a company by its website and works on every plan, including the free one. - Match a long list in one job. On AI Plus or AI Pro, a bulk lookup job identifies up to 2,000 names from a list or from one web page. Each name comes back
MATCHED,NEEDS_REVIEWwith ranked candidates, orNO_MATCH. For a company that comes backNO_MATCH, request coverage with its website. - Save the companies you track. AI Plus and AI Pro include saved lists and views across companies and people.
- Refresh thin records. Each match shows when its record last changed. Send incomplete or outdated records for a research update.
- Connect your tools. The MCP server and CLI bring the same data into Claude, ChatGPT, and your terminal with the same sign-in.
As of October 2026, Essential is free. AI Plus costs $49 a month or $490 a year. AI Pro costs $199 a month or $1,999 a year, and new AI Pro subscribers can pay $588 for their first year on the annual plan. Expert is priced per engagement. See pricing and plans explained.
What does not carry over: aVenture has no market maps, trend forecasts, or company health scores, so that work stays in CB Insights. Older companies, non-venture-backed businesses, and non-US companies have thinner records today, and that coverage is growing.
Frequently asked questions
Is aVenture a replacement for CB Insights?
For research on specific venture-backed startups, aVenture covers funding rounds, investors, founders, products, and competing products on one linked profile. For market maps, trend forecasts, and research shared across a large team, CB Insights remains the better tool.
How much does aVenture cost compared with CB Insights?
As of October 2026, CB Insights enterprise tiers often cost $60,000 or more a year. aVenture has a free Essential plan, AI Plus at $49 a month, and AI Pro at $199 a month.
Does aVenture cover as many companies as CB Insights?
No. CB Insights monitors more than 11 million companies. aVenture focuses on current venture-backed companies, mostly in the US, and links more detail to each one.