$30M Series C: Looking Forward to the Future at Crunchbase

Jager McConnell, CEO of Crunchbase:  It’s a big day for us here at Crunchbase. We just closed a $30 million dollar Series C funding round and welcomed our newest investor, OMERS Ventures, to the Crunchbase community. OMERS led the round with participation from existing investors: Emergence, Mayfield, Cowboy Ventures, and Verizon Ventures. This milestone is also a great vote of confidence for the vision we had way back when we spun out of AOL/Verizon and TechCrunch in 2015. It’s the beginning of some big product and team investments that we hope will make Crunchbase even more useful for all of our users.

The New Crunchbase Mission

When Crunchbase became an independent company with a clear plan for how we would succeed: become a solution, not just a utility. Crunchbase’s data alone is an amazing resource, but our users need that data to solve specific problems, and they need tools to help them do it. When we asked our community why they visit Crunchbase, they told us they were looking for signals within the data. They wanted signposts to direct them to their next business deal.

LinkedIn started with a similar approach: they created a resource (a constantly updating database of professional resumes) and then built a solution that solved the specific problem of recruiting. Their tools allowed users to promote their personal brand and gave hiring managers the ability to find great candidates. 

We’ve created a resource of constantly updating company profiles, and have been building solutions that guide our users to their next business opportunity—whether it’s a sale, a partnership, investment, etc. Our tools serve the people who want to promote their company’s brand, as well as those who are actively prospecting for companies to do business with. And we’ve just barely scratched the surface.

What’s to Come

With this round of funding, we’re investing in some of our most-requested features and adding new functionality to make it even easier for users to solve problems using Crunchbase.

All-New Look & Feel

We’re giving Crunchbase a major facelift.  Company profile pages, the place where most of our users start, are about to look a whole lot different. We’re improving the in-profile navigation, taking away clutter, adding custom insights, and speeding up load times. You’ll be able to see what matters in seconds

Source: Crunchbase