PitchBook to give early-stage startups free access, using their data

PitchBook announced two separate offerings at Web Summit in Lisbon, rolling out a free access program called PitchBook for Startups alongside PitchBook Origin, a specialized deal-sourcing tool tailored for venture capital firms and institutional investors. According to GeekWire Startups's report, the Seattle-based private market data provider will give early-stage founders complimentary access to its core database in exchange for recurring quarterly company updates. That incoming founder information feeds directly into the newly unveiled Origin platform to identify emerging businesses before they close their first institutional round.

This breakdown covers the eligibility restrictions for founders, the exact reporting obligations required to retain platform access, and the operating architecture of the Origin search tool for investors. It is written for pre-seed founders, bootstrapped operators evaluating market valuation benchmarks, and early-stage deal teams seeking visibility into private companies.

01Free data access for quarterly updates

PitchBook for Startups grants pre-seed and bootstrapped founders free access to the firm's private-market database. To maintain their subscription without paying standard enterprise platform fees, participating founders must submit company metrics every quarter, including financial figures, team headcount growth, and key product milestones.

PitchBook stated that only select portions of that collected founder data will feed into the Origin product, though the firm has not specified which exact fields are surfaced to investors. The exchange allows early-stage teams to research active sector investors, run valuation benchmarks, and track comparable startup growth trajectories directly on the platform.

Owned by Morningstar since 2016, PitchBook currently employs more than 3,000 workers across its operations. The company traditionally generates revenue by selling subscriptions to venture capital funds, private equity investors, and corporate dealmakers.

02Origin deal sourcing across unpriced companies

PitchBook Origin launches as an investor-facing discovery engine tracking roughly 25 million companies globally. The directory catalog includes stealth ventures, pre-funding organizations, and bootstrapped startups, with approximately 15 million of those profiles representing completely new additions to PitchBook's existing database.

The tool applies automated scoring mechanisms that evaluate how closely an unpriced startup matches specific investor acquisition criteria. It also monitors early business traction, sending immediate alerts to subscribers whenever tracked companies demonstrate new operational activity.

Paul Santarelli, chief solutions officer at PitchBook, explained that visibility into the period before a company raises capital has historically been missing because early signals remain difficult to detect. PitchBook has not disclosed commercial subscription pricing for Origin, and prospective investor users must currently join a waitlist.

03Record first-time financings and artificial intelligence

The simultaneous rollout of both platforms arrives as first-time venture financings in the United States reached record volumes. An estimated 8,625 first-time financings closed through the third quarter, surpassing the previous full-year record of 8,507 financings recorded across all of 2021.

Data documented in the PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor highlights that early-stage company formation is accelerating rapidly. PitchBook attributes a significant portion of this surge to advances in artificial intelligence tools, which reduce operating overhead and make company incorporation faster for technical founders.

Because thousands of newly formed teams are bypassing early institutional rounds, venture firms face rising competition to discover high-momentum teams. Origin provides investors structured entry points into pre-seed businesses that traditional venture tracking pipelines typically overlook.

04Pre-seed and bootstrapped founder eligibility

Participation in PitchBook for Startups remains restricted to founders who have not yet accepted institutional venture capital backing. Eligible candidates comprise pre-seed operations and fully bootstrapped teams looking to benchmark their early commercial metrics.

Startups that have already raised a priced equity round, which formally establishes a company valuation, cannot qualify for the free tier. This strict boundary confines the program to teams that have relied solely on personal funds, angel capital, or unpriced convertible instruments.

Founders who qualify can leverage PitchBook's comprehensive deal archives to map out investor syndicates active in their vertical. They can also analyze historical round sizes and growth velocity among peer firms prior to entering negotiations with lead investors.

05Commercial waitlist and proprietary data pipelines

PitchBook's dual launch establishes a two-sided data pipeline that turns early-stage software founders into direct contributors for institutional intelligence products. By capturing verified quarterly data points directly from founders, PitchBook strengthens the accuracy of its private company directory.

For venture capital firms, the platform centralizes deal signals from millions of unindexed companies directly inside a dedicated screening interface. Investors receive notifications when bootstrapped or pre-institutional teams hit specific hiring or development thresholds.

PitchBook has opened registration for the startup program alongside the investor waitlist for Origin. The company plans to evaluate platform traction as additional pre-seed companies enroll and provide their operational updates over upcoming quarterly reporting cycles.