Crunchbase Company Scraper - Funding, Investors, Founders & Startup Data

Scrape Crunchbase for company profiles, funding rounds, investor data, founder information, and growth signals. Extract total funding, revenue estimates, employee counts, and social links. Essential for investor research, B2B sales prospecting, and startup market analysis.

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Session Cookies Strongly Recommended

Crunchbase hard-paywalls company data after a few anonymous page views. Without sessionCookies, you get very limited data before the paywall blocks access. With cookies, you get full company profiles, funding rounds, and employee data. See Authentication below.

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Features

• Company Profiles - Name, description, headquarters, website, founding date
• Funding Data - Total funding, round details, amounts, lead investors
• Investor Information - VCs, angels, and institutional investors per company
• Founder & Executive Data - Key people with titles and LinkedIn profiles
• Industry Tags - Categories, sectors, and technology focus areas
• Employee Count - Company size ranges and growth signals
• Social Links - LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook URLs
• Revenue Estimates - When available from Crunchbase
• Crunchbase Rank - Company prominence ranking
• Location & Headquarters - City, state, country data
• Paywall Detection - Automatically detects when Crunchbase blocks access and logs a clear warning
• Session Cookie Authentication - Pass your Crunchbase session cookies to bypass the paywall and access full company data
• Anti-Detection - Residential proxies for reliable access
• Demo Mode - Test with sample data before going live

Authentication

Crunchbase aggressively paywalls company data. After a handful of anonymous page views, detailed profiles, funding rounds, and employee information get blocked. Providing your session cookies gives the actor a logged-in session for full data access.

What You Need

Scenario	sessionCookies	Result
Without cookies	Not provided	Very limited data -- Crunchbase paywall blocks detailed profiles after a few views
With cookies	Your Crunchbase session cookies	Full access to company profiles, funding rounds, investors, employees

How to Get Your Session Cookies (Cookie-Editor)

1. Install the Cookie-Editor browser extension (available for Chrome, Firefox, Edge)
2. Go to crunchbase.com and log in to your Crunchbase account (free accounts work for basic access)
3. Click the Cookie-Editor extension icon in your browser toolbar
4. Click Export (bottom-left) to copy all cookies as JSON
5. Paste the JSON array into the sessionCookies input field when running this actor

Example cookie JSON format:

[
  {
    "name": "_cb_session",
    "value": "abc123def456...",
    "domain": ".crunchbase.com",
    "path": "/"
  },
  {
    "name": "cb_auth_token",
    "value": "eyJhbG...",
    "domain": ".crunchbase.com",
    "path": "/"
  }
]

Cookie Tips

• A free Crunchbase account provides basic access. A Pro account ($49/month) provides deeper data.
• Cookies typically last several days but may expire sooner under heavy use. If you start hitting paywalls, export fresh cookies.
• The actor only reads cookies for authentication. Your credentials are never stored.

Who Should Use This Actor?

Venture Capital & Angel Investors

Track funding activity in target sectors. Identify companies at specific funding stages for potential investment opportunities.

B2B Sales Teams

Build prospect lists of well-funded companies. Companies with recent funding rounds have budget allocation for new tools and services.

Startup Founders

Research competitors, identify potential investors, and benchmark your growth against peers in your sector.

M&A Teams

Identify acquisition targets by industry, funding stage, and size. Track market consolidation patterns.

Market Research Analysts

Map startup ecosystems by geography, sector, and funding stage. Analyze venture capital trends and emerging industries.

Journalists & Content Creators

Research companies for articles, reports, and analysis. Access structured data about funding, leadership, and company trajectory.

Important: Rate Limiting Considerations

Crunchbase monitors automated access closely. To minimize detection:

1. Start slow - Begin with maxResults: 10 and increase gradually
2. Use residential proxies - The actor defaults to residential proxies
3. Space your runs - Wait 20-30 minutes between runs
4. Batch by sector - Run one industry per batch
5. Limit funding detail - Only request funding rounds when needed
6. Use session cookies - Authenticated sessions are less likely to trigger anti-bot measures

Quick Start

With Session Cookies (Recommended)

{
  "scrapeType": "search",
  "industry": "Artificial Intelligence",
  "location": "San Francisco, CA",
  "maxResults": 50,
  "sessionCookies": [{"name": "_cb_session", "value": "YOUR_SESSION", "domain": ".crunchbase.com"}],
  "demoMode": false
}

Demo Mode (Free Test)

{
  "demoMode": true
}

Search by Industry

{
  "scrapeType": "search",
  "industry": "Artificial Intelligence",
  "location": "San Francisco, CA",
  "fundingStage": "Series B",
  "maxResults": 50,
  "demoMode": false
}

Scrape a Specific Company

{
  "scrapeType": "company_profile",
  "companyUrl": "https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/openai",
  "includeFunding": true,
  "includeFounders": true,
  "sessionCookies": [{"name": "_cb_session", "value": "YOUR_SESSION", "domain": ".crunchbase.com"}],
  "demoMode": false
}

Recently Funded Companies

{
  "scrapeType": "search",
  "industry": "SaaS",
  "fundedWithin": 30,
  "minFunding": 10000000,
  "maxResults": 100,
  "sessionCookies": [{"name": "_cb_session", "value": "YOUR_SESSION", "domain": ".crunchbase.com"}],
  "demoMode": false
}

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
scrapeType	string	search	Type: company_profile, search, funding_rounds
companyUrl	string	-	Direct Crunchbase company URL
companyName	string	-	Company name to search
industry	string	-	Industry filter (AI, SaaS, Healthcare, Fintech, etc.)
location	string	-	City, state, or country filter
fundingStage	string	-	Filter: Seed, Series A, Series B, Series C+, IPO
minFunding	number	-	Minimum total funding (in USD)
fundedWithin	number	-	Only companies funded in last N days
includeFunding	boolean	true	Include funding round details
includeFounders	boolean	true	Include founder and exec data
maxResults	number	50	Maximum companies
sessionCookies	array	-	Strongly recommended. Your Crunchbase session cookies exported as JSON from Cookie-Editor. Provides full access past the paywall.
proxyConfiguration	object	Residential	Proxy settings
demoMode	boolean	true	Return sample data for testing
webhookUrl	string	-	Webhook URL for results delivery

Output Format

{
  "name": "TechVenture AI",
  "crunchbaseUrl": "https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/techventure-ai",
  "description": "Enterprise AI platform for workflow automation...",
  "shortDescription": "Enterprise AI automation platform",
  "website": "https://techventureai.com",
  "headquarters": "San Francisco, CA",
  "country": "United States",
  "founded": 2021,
  "employees": "51-100",
  "industries": ["Artificial Intelligence", "Enterprise Software", "SaaS"],
  "totalFunding": "$45M",
  "totalFundingNumeric": 45000000,
  "lastFundingType": "Series B",
  "lastFundingDate": "2025-09-15",
  "lastFundingAmount": "$30M",
  "investors": ["Sequoia Capital", "Andreessen Horowitz"],
  "fundingRounds": [
    {
      "type": "Series B",
      "date": "2025-09-15",
      "amount": "$30M",
      "leadInvestors": ["Sequoia Capital"]
    },
    {
      "type": "Series A",
      "date": "2023-03-01",
      "amount": "$12M",
      "leadInvestors": ["Andreessen Horowitz"]
    },
    {
      "type": "Seed",
      "date": "2021-08-15",
      "amount": "$3M",
      "leadInvestors": ["Y Combinator"]
    }
  ],
  "founders": [
    {
      "name": "Sarah Chen",
      "title": "CEO & Co-founder",
      "linkedIn": "https://linkedin.com/in/sarahchen"
    }
  ],
  "socialLinks": {
    "linkedin": "https://linkedin.com/company/techventureai",
    "twitter": "https://twitter.com/techventureai"
  },
  "rank": 1250,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-01-28T10:30:00.000Z"
}

Pricing (Pay-Per-Event)

Event	Description	Price
company_scraped	Per company profile scraped	$0.03
funding_round_scraped	Per funding round included	$0.01

Example costs:

• 50 companies with funding data: (50 x $0.03) + (150 x $0.01) = $3.00
• 100 companies, profiles only: 100 x $0.03 = $3.00
• 10 detailed company profiles: (10 x $0.03) + (30 x $0.01) = $0.60
• Demo mode: $0.00

Common Scenarios

Scenario 1: Sales Prospecting (Recently Funded)

{
  "scrapeType": "search",
  "industry": "SaaS",
  "fundedWithin": 60,
  "minFunding": 5000000,
  "maxResults": 100,
  "sessionCookies": [{"name": "_cb_session", "value": "YOUR_SESSION", "domain": ".crunchbase.com"}],
  "demoMode": false
}

Companies with recent funding have budget to spend on new tools.

Scenario 2: Competitive Landscape Analysis

{
  "scrapeType": "search",
  "industry": "Artificial Intelligence",
  "location": "United States",
  "fundingStage": "Series B",
  "maxResults": 75,
  "sessionCookies": [{"name": "_cb_session", "value": "YOUR_SESSION", "domain": ".crunchbase.com"}],
  "demoMode": false
}

Scenario 3: Investor Deal Flow

{
  "scrapeType": "search",
  "industry": "Fintech",
  "fundingStage": "Seed",
  "location": "New York, NY",
  "maxResults": 50,
  "sessionCookies": [{"name": "_cb_session", "value": "YOUR_SESSION", "domain": ".crunchbase.com"}],
  "demoMode": false
}

Webhook & Automation Integration

Zapier / Make.com / n8n

1. Create a webhook trigger in your automation platform
2. Copy the webhook URL to webhookUrl
3. Route results to Google Sheets, CRM, Airtable, etc.

Popular automations:

• New funded companies -> HubSpot CRM (sales pipeline)
• Funding alerts -> Slack notification (deal monitoring)
• Company data -> Airtable (market intelligence database)

Apify Scheduled Runs

Schedule weekly runs to track new funding activity in your target sectors.

Official API Alternatives

Crunchbase API

Crunchbase offers an official API:

• Basic - Free, limited to 200 requests/minute, basic data
• Pro - $49/month, expanded data access
• Enterprise - Custom pricing, full data access
• Best for: Applications needing real-time, structured data

Alternative Startup Data Sources

• PitchBook - Comprehensive VC data (enterprise pricing, $20K+/year)
• CB Insights - Market intelligence (enterprise pricing)
• LinkedIn - Company pages (see our LinkedIn Profile Scraper)
• AngelList/Wellfound - Startup jobs and data

This Scraper's Advantages

1. No API key needed - Access public profiles directly
2. Full funding history - Complete round details with investors
3. Founder LinkedIn data - Direct links to decision-makers
4. Batch processing - Search and extract many companies at once
5. Pay-per-result pricing (vs monthly API subscription)
6. Session cookie auth for full data access past the paywall

FAQ

Q: Do I need a Crunchbase account?

A: A Crunchbase account is strongly recommended. Without one, the scraper gets very limited data before the paywall blocks access. A free account provides basic access; a Pro account ($49/month) provides deeper data. Export your session cookies with Cookie-Editor for full access.

Q: How current is the funding data?

A: Crunchbase funding data is typically updated within days of press releases. Schedule weekly runs for near-real-time monitoring.

Q: Can I filter by funding amount?

A: Yes. Use minFunding to find companies with a minimum total funding threshold.

Q: What's the difference between this and the Crunchbase API?

A: The scraper accesses public profiles without API limits or monthly fees. The API offers real-time access with rate limits and subscription costs.

Q: Can I find investor portfolios?

A: The scraper extracts investors per company. To map an investor's portfolio, search for companies with that investor in post-processing.

Known Limitations

• Hard paywall - Crunchbase aggressively paywalls after a few anonymous page views. Without sessionCookies, you get very limited data. The actor detects the paywall and logs a warning.
• Cookie expiration - Session cookies may expire after several days. Export fresh cookies if you start getting limited results.
• Anti-scraping measures - Crunchbase monitors for automated access. Always use residential proxies and space runs apart.
• Data completeness - Some companies have incomplete profiles on Crunchbase (missing funding amounts, employee counts, etc.). This is a Crunchbase data limitation, not a scraping error.

Common Problems & Solutions

Problem	Solution
Very limited data returned	Provide sessionCookies -- Crunchbase paywalls after a few views. Export cookies from Cookie-Editor.
Paywall detected	Your cookies have expired or you are running without cookies. Log in to crunchbase.com and export fresh cookies.
"Company not found"	Check Crunchbase URL format. Try searching by company name. Some very new companies may not have profiles yet.
Rate limited or blocked	Wait 20-30 minutes between runs. Reduce maxResults to 10-25. Use residential proxies.
Demo data showing	Set demoMode: false.
Incomplete funding data	Some companies don't disclose funding amounts. This is a Crunchbase data limitation.
Timeout errors	Reduce maxResults. Large batch scrapes need more time.

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Support

• Actor Arsenal: Full Actor Catalog
• Developer: John Rippy

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Built by John Rippy | Actor Arsenal