Yale University Library Research Guides: Innovation & Entrepreneurship Research: Company & Competitor Information

Company Profiles & Directories

The following resources cover both public and private companies, which can help you identify and research competitors.

Capital IQ
S&P Capital IQ provides both real-time and historical information on companies, markets, transactions, and people worldwide. Requires registering an individual account with a yale email address. Individuals that do not want to create an individual account can use S&P NetAdvantage for similar functionality.
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Great for surfacing international companies and all the players in your venture's industry.
Mergent Intellect
Directory of global business information that features access to private and public U.S and international business data, executive contact information, and industry research. Data is provided from D&B Hoovers.
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Accessible after graduation. Includes industry reports and valuation multiples.
Orbis
Bureau Van Dijk's database contains information on more than 400 million companies worldwide. Notable features include extensive coverage of private companies and corporate ownership structures, as well as information on royalty fees and agreements..
For additional help and a link to the ORBIS Platform, see the Getting Started with BVD's ORBIS guide.
Data Axle (Formerly known as ReferenceUSA)
Searchable directory of public and private U.S. and Canadian companies. Featuring 24+ million current records and 150+ million historical records (back to 2003). Can be used to create maps and charts of business locations.
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ReferenceUSA (now Data Axle Reference Solutions) limits the number of records that can be downloaded per search. For access to a deeper backfile of historic records (back to 1997) without download limits, try the InfoGroup Historical Business data, available via WRDS.

The following resources cover private & venture-backed companies exclusively:

CB Insights
CB Insights provides real-time information about global start-up companies and investors. Requires users to register for an account and login with a Yale email address.
PitchBook
Features real time data to research and analyze companies, PE & VC deals, funds, investors and service providers across the entire private investment lifecycle. Requires users to sign in with an @Yale.edu email address. Users will be directed to the Yale CAS sign In page. Do not click "Log in without SSO" even if you had an individual account previously. Commercial use is prohibited.
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Users are limited to 10 downloads per day and 25 downloads per month. (1 download = 1 row of data on an Excel file). Accounts will automatically be reset annually on May 31.
PrivCo
Source for business and financial data on major, non-publicly traded corporations, including family owned, private equity owned, venture backed, and international unlisted companies. Requires users to sign up for an account using a Yale email address.