San Francisco-based Crunchbase has rebooted itself as an AI-powered predictions engine, leaving behind its roots as a historical data repository to forecast private market moves with up to 95% accuracy and 99% recall. Unveiled on February 19, 2025, this shift taps billions of live market signals to deliver intelligence to organizations sizing up the innovation ecosystem—especially the tracking of startups poised for growth, fundraising, or disruption. Beyond the business pivot, Crunchbase’s new tools offer a window into emerging players and trends by pairing powerful predictive models with real-time insights from 80+ million annual platform users.
Crunchbase’s overhaul includes an updated user interface and three core features: Predictive Company Profiles (showing projected next moves, whether fundraising, acquisition, or otherwise), a Private Market Homepage (delivering live updates in private markets), and a newly expanded “Crunchbase Scout” AI. This Scout interface allows users to ask questions such as “Which companies are predicted to raise funding in the next 12 months?” and receive dynamic results—including specifics like headquarters location and industry, as seen in the screenshot below featuring companies like Eptune and Structura. From an R&D standpoint, these predictive elements can inform decisions about potential partnerships, technology licensing, or even competitive benchmarking.
In the last month, Crunchbase notes that it has made more than 430 correct predictions.
The platform’s emphasis on actionable metrics also extends to its detailed performance indicators, helping R&D professionals gain a deeper understanding of startup health and momentum. As illustrated in the Structura profile screenshot, features like the “Growth Score” (97, up 10 points this quarter) and “Heat Score” (78, also up 10 points) offer quantifiable signals of a company’s trajectory, while the line graph tracks these trends over customizable timeframes—from 3 months to 10 years. Coupled with predictions about funding likelihood (e.g., Structura’s 78% chance of raising funds in the next 6 months), this data helps R&D strategists prioritize resources effectively, focusing on emerging opportunities or pivoting away from stagnating sectors.
As part of the relaunch, Crunchbase now provides 18 new data signals—6 “Predictions” and 12 “Insights.” Predictions focus on future milestones such as fundraising, IPO likelihood, acquisitions, or closures, while Insights summarize current performance metrics like growth, products and services, R&D portfolios, and partnership announcements. According to Crunchbase, Predictions help uncover opportunities or risks before they happen, while Insights accelerate the due diligence process by automating the evaluation of present company movements.
This new direction builds on prior milestones. In our previous coverage, we explored how Crunchbase’s AI-powered API can streamline market intelligence. At the time, Crunchbase’s CPO Megh Gautam noted, “Predictions & Insights features mark a major leap in how users and businesses interact with private company data. Our aim is to proactively offer guidance and answer essential questions for users.” Now, with the full infusion of predictive intelligence across Crunchbase’s software, integrations, and API, the organization aims to make identifying startups—and forecasting their future moves—faster and more precise than ever.
