BetaList Startup Directory Scraper

Scrape BetaList — the startup discovery directory where founders launch new products to an early-adopter audience. Pull the latest daily launches feed, run full-text search across the entire directory, browse by category & tag, browse by region, browse every startup a specific maker submitted, or pull a curated monthly/yearly/themed collection. Get startup name, tagline, logo, launch date, and featured/boosted status in a clean, ready-to-use dataset — no coding required.

What this actor does

BetaList lists thousands of early-stage startups across 22 categories and 300+ tags (AI, SaaS, e-commerce, fintech, health, dev tools, and more). This actor gives you six ways to pull that data:

• Latest launches — the reverse-chronological homepage feed, grouped by launch day
• Search — full-text search across startup name, tagline, and description
• Browse by category & tag — pull every startup listed under a specific topic (e.g. AI > Chatbot, Commerce > E-commerce)
• Browse by region — pull every startup located in a continent (e.g. Europe) or country (e.g. France)
• Browse by maker — pull every startup a specific maker submitted, plus that maker's own profile (name, bio, avatar, social link)
• Browse a curated collection — pull a monthly/yearly retrospective (e.g. "Startups of 2020") or themed roundup (e.g. "Work From Home")

Every record includes an omit-empty, ready-to-export shape — fields that can't be populated for a given mode are simply left out rather than sent as null.

By default (fetchDetails: true), the actor also opens each startup's own detail page to pull its full description, product screenshot gallery, real external website URL, maker profile(s), its complete topic list, location(s), and a list of related startups — data that isn't on the listing pages at all. Turn fetchDetails off for a faster, listing-only scrape.

Output per startup

Field	Type	Description
name	string	Startup name
tagline	string	One-line pitch / short description
description	string	Full-length description from the startup's detail page (fetchDetails: true)
screenshots	array of strings	Product screenshot gallery image URLs from the startup's detail page (fetchDetails: true)
slug	string	BetaList URL slug (e.g. reventir)
sourceUrl	string	Canonical BetaList page for the startup
websiteUrl	string	The startup's real external website, resolved from BetaList's own redirect link (fetchDetails: true)
imageUrl	string	Logo image URL
isBoosted	boolean	true if BetaList has marked the listing as BOOSTED (paid featured placement)
launchDate	string	ISO date (YYYY-MM-DD) the startup was launched. Always present in Latest launches mode; present in every mode when fetchDetails: true
makers	array of objects	Maker(s)/founder(s) who submitted the startup — username, profileUrl, and name when shown (fetchDetails: true)
topics	array of objects	The complete topic list BetaList assigned to the startup — each with category, tag, categoryLabel, tagLabel (fetchDetails: true)
locations	array of objects	The region(s)/countries BetaList associates with the startup — each with region, regionLabel (fetchDetails: true)
relatedStartups	array of objects	BetaList's own "Discover startups similar to X" recommendations from the detail page — each with slug, name, tagline, sourceUrl, imageUrl, isBoosted (fetchDetails: true)
category	string	Category slug of the browsed topic — only present in Browse by category & tag mode
categoryLabel	string	Human-readable category name of the browsed topic
tag	string	Tag slug of the browsed topic — only present in Browse by category & tag mode
tagLabel	string	Human-readable tag name of the browsed topic
browsedRegion	string	Region slug that was browsed — only present in Browse by region mode
browsedRegionLabel	string	Human-readable region name that was browsed
browsedCollection	string	Collection slug that was browsed — only present in Browse a curated collection mode
browsedCollectionLabel	string	Human-readable collection name (e.g. Startups of 2020)
browsedMakerUsername	string	The maker's BetaList handle — only present in Browse by maker mode
browsedMakerName	string	The maker's display name
browsedMakerAvatarUrl	string	The maker's profile avatar image URL
browsedMakerBio	string	The maker's profile bio, if they set one
browsedMakerSocialUrl	string	The maker's linked social profile (e.g. X/Twitter), if shown
browsedMakerStartupCount	integer	Total number of startups BetaList credits to this maker
recordType	string	Always "startup"
scrapedAt	string	UTC ISO timestamp of when the record was scraped

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	select	latest	latest, search, category_tag_browse, region_browse, maker_browse, or collection_browse
searchQuery	string	ai	Free-text query (mode=search) — matched against name, tagline, and description
categoryTag	select	ai/artificial-intelligence	Category > tag combination to browse (mode=category_tag_browse) — 734 options covering every topic BetaList supports
region	select	north-america	Continent or country to browse (mode=region_browse)
collection	select	startups-of-2020	Curated collection to browse (mode=collection_browse) — monthly/yearly retrospectives plus themed roundups
makerUsername	string	olucurious	BetaList maker handle to browse (mode=maker_browse), with or without the leading @
boostedOnly	boolean	false	Only keep startups marked BOOSTED (featured/paid placement)
fetchDetails	boolean	true	Also fetch each startup's detail page for description, screenshots, websiteUrl, makers, topics, locations, relatedStartups, and a reliable launchDate in every mode. Costs 2 extra requests per startup — turn off for a faster listing-only scrape
keyword	string	–	Case-insensitive substring filter applied to name + tagline, on top of the selected mode's results
launchDateFrom	string	–	Drop startups launched before this date (YYYY-MM-DD). Reliable in every mode with fetchDetails: true
launchDateTo	string	–	Drop startups launched after this date (YYYY-MM-DD). Reliable in every mode with fetchDetails: true
maxItems	integer	50	Hard cap on the number of records returned (1–2000). Collections and maker profiles are single-page listings on BetaList, so maker_browse/collection_browse return at most everything on that one page regardless of this cap
proxyConfiguration	object	Apify proxy (AUTO)	Optional. BetaList serves plain HTML with no bot-detection observed, so a proxy isn't required — this just lets you distribute requests across the free Apify datacenter pool if you wish

Example: latest launches, boosted only

{
  "mode": "latest",
  "maxItems": 50,
  "boostedOnly": true
}

Example: full-text search

{
  "mode": "search",
  "searchQuery": "developer tools",
  "maxItems": 100
}

Example: browse a category & tag

{
  "mode": "category_tag_browse",
  "categoryTag": "ai/chatbot",
  "maxItems": 100
}

Example: browse by region

{
  "mode": "region_browse",
  "region": "france",
  "maxItems": 100
}

Example: browse by maker

{
  "mode": "maker_browse",
  "makerUsername": "olucurious"
}

Example: browse a curated collection

{
  "mode": "collection_browse",
  "collection": "startups-of-2020"
}

Example: launches within a date window

{
  "mode": "latest",
  "launchDateFrom": "2026-07-01",
  "launchDateTo": "2026-07-31",
  "maxItems": 500
}

Use cases

• Market research — track what's launching in a given space (AI tools, fintech, dev tools) week over week
• Investor sourcing — build a feed of newly launched startups matching your investment thesis
• Competitive intelligence — monitor new entrants in your category and tag
• Newsletter / content curation — pull the day's launches for a "startups to watch" roundup
• Lead generation — find early-stage companies to reach out to as a vendor, agency, or partner
• Trend analysis — measure launch volume and category mix over time
• Regional market mapping — see what's launching in a specific country or continent
• Maker/founder research — pull every product a serial founder has submitted to BetaList
• Retrospective research — revisit a specific month/year's launch cohort via curated collections

FAQ

What is BetaList? BetaList is a long-running startup discovery platform where founders submit their product for a public launch to an audience of early adopters, journalists, and investors.

Why do some records have a launchDate and others don't? The homepage's Latest launches feed groups startups by launch day, so launchDate is always present there. Search, category/tag browse, and region browse listing pages don't show a launch date directly — but with the default fetchDetails: true, the actor reads it from each startup's own detail page, so it's reliably present in every mode. Turning fetchDetails off falls back to listing-only data, where launchDate is only available in latest mode (and, for curated collections that use BetaList's editorial card layout, from the "featured on" caption).

What are description, screenshots, websiteUrl, makers, topics, locations, and relatedStartups? These come from each startup's individual BetaList page (enabled by default via fetchDetails). description is the full write-up (vs. the one-line tagline); screenshots is the product screenshot gallery shown at the top of the page; websiteUrl is the startup's real external site, resolved by following BetaList's own outbound redirect link; makers lists who submitted it; topics is the complete set of category/tag pairs BetaList assigned — often more than the single category/tag implied by a browse URL; locations is the region(s) BetaList associates with the startup; relatedStartups is BetaList's own "Discover startups similar to X" recommendations.

Is websiteUrl always reachable? The URL itself is always correctly resolved from BetaList's own redirect (never fabricated), but it points to each startup's own, independently-hosted website — a small early-stage product occasionally has downtime, rate-limiting, or bot-detection on its own server, same as clicking "Visit Site" on betalist.com directly would encounter. sourceUrl, imageUrl, and maker profileUrl are all first-party BetaList/ImageKit URLs and are consistently reachable.

What does isBoosted mean? BetaList lets founders pay to "boost" their listing for extra visibility. isBoosted: true marks a paid/featured placement; it does not affect the accuracy of the other fields.

What are the browsedRegion/browsedCollection/browsedMaker* fields? These stamp the record with the region, collection, or maker you browsed to reach it — they only appear when using the matching mode (region_browse, collection_browse, or maker_browse respectively), and never leak onto records from latest, search, or category_tag_browse.

Does maker_browse also return the maker's own profile info? Yes — BetaList's "Maker of N startups" page also shows the maker's display name, avatar, bio, and social link, which are stamped onto every startup record that maker submitted (browsedMakerName, browsedMakerAvatarUrl, browsedMakerBio, browsedMakerSocialUrl, browsedMakerStartupCount). If BetaList has no profile for the given makerUsername, the run finishes with 0 records and a clear status message rather than a crash.

Why does maker_browse/collection_browse sometimes return fewer records than maxItems? BetaList renders a maker's full submission list and a collection's full roster on a single page — there's no further pagination to fetch, so the actor returns everything on that one page even if it's below your maxItems cap.

How many categories and tags are supported? All 23 top-level categories and all 734 category/tag combinations BetaList exposes at /browse, including a catch-all Other > Startups tag. BetaList only lists startups at the category+tag level (browsing a bare category returns no listings), so categoryTag always combines both.

Can I combine keyword with search mode? Yes — keyword is applied as an additional client-side filter on top of whatever mode returns, so you can narrow a search or category_tag_browse result set further.

How fresh is the data? BetaList publishes new launches daily; latest mode reflects the live homepage feed at run time.

Does this actor require a proxy or login? No. BetaList's listing pages are public and served as plain HTML with no bot-detection observed, so the actor runs without cookies, API keys, or a mandatory proxy.

Is this affiliated with BetaList? No, this is a third-party actor that reads BetaList's public pages. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by BetaList.