InvestorUniverse vs PitchBook

What PitchBook is

PitchBook describes itself as a data and research platform for private capital markets. Its site lists market intelligence, deal sourcing, due diligence, fundraising, benchmarking and portfolio management among its uses.

It is a large professional product, and its site offers a free trial on request, a guided tour and profile previews.

PitchBook describes its platform as a suite of software applications. On a trial, ask which parts your licence would include.

Who it suits

PitchBook's own site names private equity firms, venture capital investors, limited partners, investment banks, credit investors, corporate development teams, asset managers and service providers as its users.

That is a professional audience. A founder can find investor profiles in it, but the platform is designed around the work of people who invest, advise and allocate capital.

Founders sometimes get access through a university, an accelerator or an adviser. If that is you, it is worth a look, particularly for researching comparable deals and who has backed companies like yours.

What it costs

PitchBook does not publish its pricing, and its site asks you to request a quote.

InvestorUniverse prices are public. The top 10 is free, the full report is a one-off purchase, and monthly plans start with Spark at £79.

Where PitchBook is strong

Depth and range. It covers private equity, venture capital, M&A and more, and it is built for deal sourcing, due diligence and benchmarking. If your job is to research private markets all day, a platform like this has tools for it.

The trial, guided tour and profile previews let you look before you buy.

It also supports fundraising and networking among the uses it lists, so it reaches beyond pure data for firms raising their own funds. A large team with many people working in the same system gets the most from a platform of this kind.

Where InvestorUniverse is a better fit

We are built for the founder with a raise to run. We take your stage, sector, cheque size and geography, score UK investors against them with recent activity in the mix, and return up to 100 best-fit investors with written reasons. You can read why each one made the list.

The cost is small and clear, so a pre-seed or seed founder can have a UK shortlist today without a sales call or a contract. Our funding newsroom adds a regular view of who is investing.

We keep the scope narrow on purpose. We score investors against a UK raise, and we try to make that list clear, ordered and explained. PitchBook covers far more markets and deal types than we do.

If you want to see how the ranking works, the free top 10 once you sign up shows it on your own company before you spend anything.

When I'd use PitchBook instead

I'd use PitchBook if I were working at a fund, a bank, an advisory firm or a corporate development team and needed deep private market data across many deal types. I'd also consider it if I wanted valuation and deal data across a wide range of markets and had a budget for a professional licence.

A later-stage company with a finance team and a large raise might also find the research tools worth the cost.

If you plan to raise a very large round, or you advise companies that do, the breadth of a professional platform can justify a professional budget. I would ask for a free trial and see what the data looks like for your sector before agreeing to anything.

How they can work together

If you already have access to PitchBook, perhaps through an adviser or a university, use it to study comparable deals and valuations. Then use InvestorUniverse to turn that into a ranked list of UK investors with reasons you can quote in your outreach.

The free top 10 once you sign up takes a few minutes and costs nothing.

Quick summary

PitchBook is a professional private markets platform with pricing on request. InvestorUniverse is a UK-focused investor shortlist for founders, with a free top 10 once you sign up, a one-off full report and plans from £79 a month. I'd pick PitchBook for market research at a firm and InvestorUniverse for running a UK raise.

If you are unsure, try the free route first. A ranked top 10 takes a few minutes and tells you quickly whether the UK investors you had in mind are the right ones.