If you care about what your competitors are raising—and let’s be honest, you should—then you need a simple, reliable way to keep tabs on their funding rounds. This guide is for founders, product folks, marketers, and anyone who wants clear, actionable steps (not hand-waving advice) on using Crunchbase to track competitor funding without drowning in noise or wasting time.
Why Bother Tracking Competitor Funding?
Before we dive in, let's get real. Tracking your competitors’ funding rounds isn’t about schadenfreude or panic. It’s about spotting market moves, understanding growth signals, and seeing where the money’s flowing. But it’s easy to overdo it or chase stale data—so let’s keep it practical.
Step 1: Make a Target List of Competitors
First, don’t try to track everyone. Pick your real competitors—the ones you’re most likely to lose deals to, or who are playing in the same sandbox. If you’re not sure who those are, here’s a quick sanity check:
- Who do your customers mention when they talk about “other options”?
- Who keeps popping up in analyst reports or “top 10” lists?
- Who’s hiring aggressively in your space?
Pro Tip: Start with 5-10 companies. You can always expand later, but more is not better if you’re just starting out.
Step 2: Get the Right Crunchbase Plan (or Don’t)
Here’s the honest bit: Crunchbase is not 100% free. Yes, you can see public profiles and some data without paying, but features like saved searches and alerts are behind a paywall.
- Crunchbase Free: Good for casual browsing, spot-checking, or small lists. You’ll need to check profiles manually.
- Crunchbase Pro: Needed if you want automated alerts, saved searches, and more advanced filters. As of 2024, it runs about $29–$49/month/user. Worth it if competitor tracking is mission-critical.
Don’t overthink it: If you’re just curious, start free. If you want funding alerts in your inbox, spring for Pro.
Step 3: Build and Save Your Competitor List in Crunchbase
Assuming you’ve got your target companies and a Crunchbase account, here’s how to set up a list:
- Search for Each Company: Use the search bar at the top. Double-check for naming variations (e.g., “Inc.” vs. no “Inc.”).
- Save to a List: On each company profile, look for the “Save” or “+ List” button. Create a new list called “Competitors” or something obvious.
- Check for Duplicates: Crunchbase has a lot of near-duplicates for companies with common names. Make sure you’re tracking the right one—look for the right logo, website, and location.
Why bother with a saved list? It makes filtering, future searches, and setting up alerts much easier.
Step 4: Set Up Funding Round Alerts
This is where Crunchbase Pro earns its keep. Here’s how to get alerts that actually matter:
- Go to Your Saved List: Click into your “Competitors” list.
- Set Up Alerts: Look for the “Alerts” tab or bell icon. You can usually set alerts for “Funding Rounds” and customize frequency (immediate, daily, weekly).
- Pick Your Poison: Daily or weekly summaries are best. “Immediate” can get noisy if you’re tracking a big list.
- Test Your Alerts: Add a company you know just raised money. Did you get the alert? If not, check your settings.
What works: Funding round alerts are usually timely (within a day or two of public announcement). Crunchbase pulls from press releases, regulatory filings, and news crawlers.
What doesn’t: Don’t expect to catch secret or stealth rounds—Crunchbase only knows what’s public. If a competitor raises quietly and doesn’t announce, you’ll miss it. Also, sometimes updates can lag if the funding isn’t widely reported.
Step 5: Create a Funding Round Feed (Manual Option)
If you’re on the free plan, you’ll need to check in manually. Here’s a simple workflow that doesn’t suck:
- Visit Your List Weekly: Open your “Competitors” list and filter by “Funding Rounds.”
- Sort by Date: Look for anything new in the past 30–60 days.
- Copy to Your Tracker: If you’re serious, copy new rounds into a Google Sheet with columns for date, company, amount, round type, and notes.
Pro Tip: Set yourself a calendar reminder for 10 minutes every Monday. Don’t let it turn into a rabbit hole.
Step 6: Dig Into the Details (But Don’t Overanalyze)
When you spot a new funding round, here’s what actually matters:
- How much did they raise? Is it a huge jump, or just a bridge round?
- Who invested? Top-tier VCs, or a bunch of unknowns?
- Round type: Seed, Series A, Series B, etc. Later-stage rounds mean real traction or big bets.
- Announced vs. closed date: Sometimes rounds are announced months after they actually happened.
- Any strategic partners? Sometimes the real story is in the investor list, not the headline number.
What to ignore: Most PR around funding is just that—PR. Ignore the hype about “industry leadership” or “disrupting the market.” Focus on the facts: how much, when, and who.
Step 7: Set Up a Simple Internal Process
Tracking is pointless if no one looks at the data. Here’s how to make it useful:
- Share Updates: Drop notable rounds into your team Slack or send a short monthly email roundup.
- Flag Big Moves: If a competitor raises a monster round, or brings in a major investor, that’s worth a team discussion.
- Don’t Overreact: One round doesn’t mean a competitor is about to eat your lunch. But it can hint at new hiring, product launches, or expansion.
What works: Short, regular updates keep everyone in the loop without becoming a distraction.
What doesn’t: Don’t build a 20-page slide deck for every funding round. No one cares.
Step 8: (Optional) Add Other Data Sources
Crunchbase is solid, but it’s not gospel. Here’s where else you might want to peek—if you’ve got the time:
- PitchBook: Expensive, but deeper data if you’re in finance or need more granularity.
- SEC Filings: For U.S. companies, Form D filings can reveal unannounced rounds.
- TechCrunch/Media: Sometimes scoops break here before hitting Crunchbase.
- Company Blogs: Some companies announce rounds directly.
If you’re not paid to do market research all day, don’t overcomplicate this. Crunchbase gets you 80% of the way there.
A Few Things to Ignore
- “Funding rumors” on Twitter: Fun to read, but rarely actionable.
- Obscure funding round names: If you see “Venture Round – 2024-06-01” and no details, just move on.
- Valuation guesses: Unless the company or investor says it outright, most public valuations are wild guesses.
Summary: Keep It Simple, Iterate Often
Tracking competitor funding rounds isn’t rocket science. Use Crunchbase to build a focused list, set up alerts if you can, and check in regularly. Share only what matters. Don’t get caught up in hype or let tracking turn into a full-time job. Start small, see what actually helps your team, and adjust as you go.
Got a better system? Tweak it. Don’t have hours to burn? That’s fine—just keep your process lean and useful. The goal is to stay informed, not to win a spreadsheet contest.