Synaptic alternatives: how aVenture compares
If you are looking for a Synaptic alternative, start with what you need from a company: performance signals or its details. aVenture is a research database for investors, founders, and analysts that records what each company builds, who runs it, who funds it, and which products compete with it.
By William Callahan · Published · Updated
What is the best Synaptic alternative?
It depends on what you need. For a company's details, aVenture fits, including for solo investors, founders, and analysts: as of October 2026 it tracks over 110,000 companies, with products, competitors, founders, investors, and news mentions. For finding startups that match a fund's thesis inside a CRM, Harmonic fits. Synaptic is the better choice if you run a VC or PE fund and want performance signals and deal-flow alerts in your CRM and calendar. Funds such as Felicis, GIC, and General Catalyst use it for discovery and portfolio tracking.
What Synaptic is
Synaptic's Deal Sourcing Platform comes from Synaptic, founded in 2013 in Gurugram. It is a data tool for venture capital and private equity investors that sells alternative data on how startups are performing. It supports startup discovery, company analysis, and portfolio tracking. It offers team insights, automatic alerts for saved searches, and integrations with external CRMs, calendars, and data feeds.
Its investor customers include Vy Capital, Felicis, GreenOaks, Ribbit, GIC, and General Catalyst. It is sold as a fund subscription priced by quote, and aVenture's database has no public list price for it.
- Saved-search alerts and CRM, calendar, and data-feed integrations put signals inside the tools investment teams already use.
- Vy Capital, Felicis, GreenOaks, Ribbit, GIC, and General Catalyst all use it.
- The same data that surfaces new deals also tracks existing positions.
aVenture vs Synaptic
Counts and prices are as of October 2026.
| Dimension | aVenture | Synaptic |
|---|---|---|
| Core product | Research records | Alternative-data signals |
| Best question | "What does this company do?" | "Which companies are growing fast?" |
| Coverage | Over 110,000 companies, mostly venture-backed and US-based | VC- and PE-focused |
| Funding data | Rounds with participating investors | Company analysis inputs |
| Competitors | Linked products, comparison tables | Not a main feature |
| People | Career timelines linked to companies | Team insights |
| Workflow | Website, iPhone, iPad, and Mac apps, API, CLI, and MCP server | CRM, calendar, and feed integrations |
| Pricing | Free plan; paid plans from $49 a month | Fund subscription, by quote |
| Buyer | Individuals through institutions | VC and PE funds |
- Synaptic wins for a fund that wants performance signals and deal-flow alerts inside its CRM and calendar.
- Synaptic wins on portfolio tracking with the same data that surfaces new deals.
- aVenture wins when you need a company's details: funding rounds with participating investors, founder and operator career timelines, product catalogs, news mentions, and crawled, classified website pages.
- aVenture wins on competitor work: competing products are linked to each other and shown in side-by-side comparison tables.
- aVenture wins for buyers outside a fund: it is priced so a solo investor, founder, or analyst can buy it.
Other Synaptic alternatives
Figures are as of October 2026.
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. It is priced by quote.
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.
Preqin Pro comes from Preqin, founded in 2003 in London, which covers fund performance, benchmarks, and investor and LP profiles across private equity, venture, hedge funds, real estate, and infrastructure. It suits fund raising, allocation, and benchmarking.
The Tracxn Platform comes from Tracxn, founded in 2012 in Bangalore, which covers 7.1M+ companies across 3,000+ feeds and 55,300+ taxonomies, curated by analysts plus technology. It suits listing the companies in a sector worldwide, already classified.
How to switch from Synaptic to aVenture
- Collect your pipeline or portfolio list. Write down the names and websites of the companies you track.
- 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 the whole 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, such as a portfolio page. Join
MATCHEDrows to their records, sendNEEDS_REVIEWrows to a person, and keepNO_MATCHrows aside. 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, and a company match shows how complete its record is. Send incomplete or outdated records for a research update.
- Connect your tools. Use the API, the
aventureCLI, or the MCP server to pull records into your own scripts and AI assistants.
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, which adds a CRM integration, custom company reports, and a dedicated analyst, is priced per engagement. See pricing and plans explained.
What does not carry over: aVenture does not sell alternative-data performance signals, and it has no calendar integration. A CRM integration comes only with the Expert plan. Older, non-venture-backed, and non-US companies have thinner records today, and that coverage is growing.
Frequently asked questions
Do funds use aVenture and Synaptic together?
Many funds use both kinds of tools. Synaptic supplies alternative data on how startups are performing, which feeds a fund's deal-flow and tracking tools. aVenture supplies research records on what those companies are, what they build, and what they compete with.
Can an individual investor buy aVenture?
Yes. Synaptic is sold to VC and PE funds. As of October 2026, aVenture has a free Essential plan, AI Plus at $49 a month, and AI Pro at $199 a month, so a solo investor, founder, or analyst can buy it.
Does aVenture show how fresh a company's data is?
Yes. Calculated fields on a profile show the date they were last calculated. In the API, each lookup match includes when its record last changed, and a company match includes how complete its record is.