How to Build a Deal-Sourcing Sheet from PitchBook Profiles with One API

I kept hitting the same wall on private-company research: the numbers I wanted lived behind an enterprise seat priced for funds, not for one analyst answering one question on a Tuesday. The public profile pages carry a real slice though, and once that slice arrives as rows instead of pages, a sourcing sheet stops being an afternoon of copy-paste.

The PitchBook Company API reads public PitchBook profile pages and returns one structured JSON row per company: firmographics, financing status, the latest deal, named investors, acquirers, and competitors.

What it returns

Each company comes back as a flat row you can drop straight into a sheet or a CRM:

• Firmographics: name, website, HQ, founding year, and a company description.

• Industry and verticals as tagged on the profile.

• Headcount and financing status.

• Latest deal: type, date, amount, plus financing round counts.

• Named investors and acquirers, with counts of recorded investments.

• Competitors, useful for market maps.

Profiles that fail to load return as error rows instead of sinking the batch, which matters once your URL list runs long.

Run it in three steps

Open the PitchBook Company API and click Try for free. Paste your profile URLs into companyUrls, up to 1,000 in one run. Run it, then export the dataset as JSON, CSV, or Excel.

Use it as a REST API

The Actor runs over the standard Apify run endpoint, so any language that can POST JSON can call it. POST a JSON body to the acts run path with your token:

POST /v2/acts/johnvc~pitchbook-company-api/runs

{ "companyUrls": ["PITCHBOOK_PROFILE_URL"] }

The run endpoint is documented in the Apify API docs. Reach for the latest deal, the investor names, and headcount first; those three answer most sourcing questions.

Wire it into Claude with MCP

Connected over the Model Context Protocol, the Actor becomes a lookup tool an agent can call. Point Claude, Claude Code, or Cursor at the Apify MCP server and ask about a private company; it fetches the current profile row instead of reciting stale training data. The walkthrough is Get PitchBook company data in Claude via MCP.

What people build with it

VC and PE teams source deals from target lists, sales and RevOps people enrich accounts with size, industry, and funding stage, and analysts map a sector by funding, headcount, and who competes with whom. Save your URL list as a task, schedule it monthly, and diff the latest-deal field between runs to catch new financings.

Runnable examples

Six worked examples sit on the examples page: a Python client, a bulk URL-list run, a deal-financing extract, and a straight-to-JSON version. The full listing lives on the Peerlist project page.

FAQ About Scraping PitchBook

Where does the PitchBook data come from and how fresh is it?

The scraper reads exactly what the public PitchBook profile page displays and standardizes it into rows, refreshed each time you run it. It sees the public slice only, not the licensed platform's deeper research, so it is honest about coverage rather than promising logged-in depth it cannot reach.

How do I call the PitchBook API and what does it cost per company?

POST a JSON body of profile URLs to the Apify run endpoint, then read the dataset as JSON, CSV, or Excel. You pay per returned row, about 1.1 cents per company, so 500 profiles land near $5.50 and the free credit usually absorbs the first batches.

Can I use the PitchBook scraper from Claude with MCP?

Yes. Through the Apify MCP server the Actor becomes a callable tool in Claude, Claude Code, and Cursor, with the same inputs and outputs as the API and no code to write.

Can an AI agent pay for this scraper in USDC with x402?

Yes. The PitchBook Company API supports agentic payments via the x402 protocol, so AI agents and MCP clients can pay for runs in USDC on Base with no Apify account or API token. Point your agent at the Apify MCP server and it can discover, pay for, and run the scraper autonomously; the Apify x402 announcement has the details.

One honest caveat

This returns the public profile slice, not the licensed platform's full financials or deal tables. For sourcing and enrichment that slice goes a long way; for a full diligence workbook you still need the seat. Failed URLs come back as error rows you can retry, so you get gaps you can see rather than silent holes.