CB Insights acquires 27 years of private company data from Dow Jones to broaden its power to inform business customers

• CB Insights, the tech market intelligence platform that makes predictions about the startups that could become unicorns, said Wednesday it acquired VentureSource's data from Dow Jones on tech, startups, and venture capitalists going back to 1983.
• As many tech companies are slashing headcount amid plummeting revenues, CB Insights said it continues to hire through the pandemic, and its multi-million dollar revenue is growing.
• The acquisition of this data, for an undisclosed amount, will help CB Insights clients make informed decisions, such as choosing which lawyers, bankers, and accountants to work with and when, the company says.
• Anand Sanwal, CEO and co-founder of CB Insights, hinted that additional acquisitions maybe on the company's horizon.

CB Insights, the market intelligence platform that is known for predicting which startups will become unicorns, said Wednesday that is has acquired VentureSource's data assets from Dow Jones for an undisclosed amount. Dow Jones VentureSource, a pioneer in the data field, has been collecting important information on tech, startups, and investors since 1983 — well before the first dot-com boom.

The acquisition of VentureSource's data assets comes at a time when CB Insights is seeing multi-million dollar revenues that keep growing, the firm says. The New York-based company, which was founded in 2008 by Anand Sanwal and Jonathan Sherry, has continued to hire during the pandemic. The startup acquired the VentureSource data without raising any additional funds, CEO Anand Sanwal told Business Insider in an interview.

The coronavirus pandemic has been "a shot in the arm" for CB Insights, Sanwal said, referring to the company's rising revenue. CB Insights, which mostly helps large enterprises make technology decisions, has seen a surge in demand. Sanwal said that the startup's clients are in the market for new technologies so that they can implement social distancing in workplaces such as factories and call centers.

Sanwal, who had previously worked with VentureSource's data assets, said that the acquisition will include an influx of "peculiar dirty data," such as PDFs and handwritten documents. While most companies won't touch this sort of information, Sanwal said that CB Insights has a "high pain tolerance" for working through old-school information.

The pain might be worth it. CB Insights, whose data is mostly from 1999 and after, hopes to become the largest database for private company data. This fresh data from VentureSource will give clients access to additional information about how private companies are run, including which lawyers, bankers, and accountants worked with which companies, and when. The data set also includes information about almost half a million management personnel, Sanwal told Business Insider.

Sanwal hinted that another acquisition might happen later this year. And while the company has recently focused on revenue rather than seeking outside funding, the CEO hinted that CB Insights might raise some funds to help with another acquisition later this year. He said the company is looking to expand further into data as well as into B2B media and hyper vertical search technology.

As CB Insights eyes future acquisitions, Sanwal said that he is always thinking about what is in the best interest of his clients.

"Customers are your investors," he said. Seeing customers in this way can give "a lot of clarity around who you need to support," Sanwal said. "We want to make sure that we're not doing this for an ego gratification," he added.

It'll take the company some time to sift through the freshly acquired data and make it useful for CB Insights clients, but Sanwal said that the company plans to integrate the data into its database by August.