Finding financial data, particularly for private companies, is no small task. It usually requires a solidBS detector for researching online and a network ofknowledgeable sources to bounce numbers off of not something that can easily be done over coffee or in the middle of a meeting. PitchBook, a PE and VC database, is integrating financial data into its mobile app to chip away at this problem.
The update is bringingfinancials for 266,000 companies, including revenue figures for 145,000 businesses, to its mobile app. Thats on top of the startup data the company provides that includes rounds, investors and other history. When available, PitchBook is also providing balance sheet summaries and valuations.The company is seeing growingdemand for its mobile offerings. 25 percent of active PitchBook users are on mobile each month, a 54 percent increase from this time last year.
Most of the private startups cataloged by PitchBook dont have complete financial data. This means that, for most companies, you will only be able to see a sampling of revenue numbers and public SEC filings.The addition seems more about co-locating all known information about a given company.
It would be nice to see PitchBook and its competitors do more with natural language search. As of now you cant search Revenue for Uber and get a result immediately. The design of the current mobile app prioritizes access to information over analysis. This move makes a lot of sense and fact checking probably covers a majority of use cases for accessing investment data on mobile. Butin lieu of analytics features for power-users, the company should try to fully deliver on its promise to get financial data in the hands of decision makers as fast as possible.
Were working on tighter device integrations with SiriKit and trying to rank better within Spotlight search, saidAlex Legault,PitchBooks lead product manager.
PitchBook has no shortage of competitors. CrunchBase, CBInsights, Mattermark and others all have solid databases for investors, but PitchBooks relationship with Morningstar should help to differentiate it with solid offerings for investors across industries in both public and private markets.
Morningstaracquired PitchBook for $225 million back in October 2016. Legault says thatPitchBook is feverishly adding non-tech companies to its database, a move that should be appreciated by thetraditional PE subscribersof Morningstar.
But the larger corpus of businesses couldnt come at a better time for PitchBooks 2,000 clients and 7,000 active users.Even in early days, the number of non-tech companies involved in tech acquisitions is substantive and set to increase in the coming years.
