Explore competitor relationships

Before you begin

This example was verified with Predictions and Insights access. Your API key must include the fields and collections requested below. Check your API package if an endpoint or field is unavailable. Complete your first API request to set CRUNCHBASE_API_KEY in bash or zsh. Commands below include response headers; look for HTTP 200, then read the JSON body.

Persona: Investors

Use case: Explore competitor relationships

Primary APIs: Organization Search and Organization Similarity Search

About Crunchbase Competitors

Crunchbase's Competitors endpoint (org_similarity) identifies a company's closest competitors and explains the signals behind each competitive relationship. Unlike traditional competitor lists, Crunchbase Competitors combines proprietary company intelligence, products and services data, LLM-driven classification, and model evaluation to generate ranked competitor relationships and explain why companies compete.

• Competitive Score — How closely the two organizations resemble one another
• Category Overlap — Shared industries and market categories
• Location Overlap — Shared geographic presence
• Product Similarities — Overlapping products and offerings
• Additional Reasons — Which identifies whether they overlap in global markets

Together, these signals give investors a defensible read on who a company competes with and why — supporting diligence, portfolio review, and sourcing within a thesis.

Step 1

Find Your Source Company’s UUID

Retrieve the UUID for a portfolio company or a potential investment. This UUID identifies the starting point for the competitor lookup in the next step.

Endpoint

https://api.crunchbase.com/v4/data/searches/organizations

Key Fields for this Query:

Sample Query

For this example, resolve Fiveonefour by its website, inspect the match, and copy its organization UUID into the source filter in Step 2.

curl --include --request POST \
  --url 'https://api.crunchbase.com/v4/data/searches/organizations' \
  --header "X-cb-user-key: $CRUNCHBASE_API_KEY" \
  --header 'Accept: application/json' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '{
  "field_ids": [
    "identifier",
    "website_url"
  ],
  "query": [
    {
      "field_id": "website_url",
      "operator_id": "domain_eq",
      "type": "predicate",
      "values": [
        "www.fiveonefour.com/"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "limit": 3
}'

Response

Response examples below are historical, shortened JSON samples; search samples show one entity and card samples show at most one record per card. Other fields or records may be omitted. Counts and values change; count is the total matching records, while entities contains the returned page.

{
  "count": 1,
  "entities": [
    {
      "uuid": "2d44d8e3-d7cb-4983-9a35-f78060dffe9c",
      "properties": {
        "website_url": "https://www.fiveonefour.com/",
        "identifier": {
          "permalink": "fiveonefour",
          "image_id": "aa125f087c634b89a8fe2892033f28ec",
          "uuid": "2d44d8e3-d7cb-4983-9a35-f78060dffe9c",
          "entity_def_id": "organization",
          "value": "Fiveonefour"
        },
        "uuid": "2d44d8e3-d7cb-4983-9a35-f78060dffe9c"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Outcome

We now have the UUID for our target company, which can be used to retrieve competitors and competitor signals in the next query, helping investors evaluate market positioning, competitive intensity, and peer groups.

Step 2

Find Competitors and Similar Organizations

Use the target company's UUID to retrieve a ranked list of competitors along with the signals behind each competitive relationship.

Endpoint

POST https://api.crunchbase.com/v4/data/searches/org_similarities

Key Fields for this Query:

The response returns a ranked list of organizations that compete with the target company, each with a competitive score and supporting signals when returned: category overlap, location overlap, product similarities, and additional reasons. Investors can use the score to prioritize where to focus diligence and the signals to defend the why.

curl --include --request POST \
  --url 'https://api.crunchbase.com/v4/data/searches/org_similarities' \
  --header "X-cb-user-key: $CRUNCHBASE_API_KEY" \
  --header 'Accept: application/json' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '{
  "field_ids": [
    "source",
    "target",
    "score",
    "identifier",
    "category_overlap",
    "location_overlap",
    "product_similarities",
    "additional_reasons"
  ],
  "query": [
    {
      "field_id": "source",
      "operator_id": "eq",
      "type": "predicate",
      "values": [
        "2d44d8e3-d7cb-4983-9a35-f78060dffe9c"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "order": [
    {
      "field_id": "score",
      "sort": "desc"
    }
  ],
  "limit": 3
}'

Response

{
  "count": 11,
  "entities": [
    {
      "uuid": "b6570d4b-33d2-4dd7-952a-11b90bd7df72",
      "properties": {
        "category_overlap": [
          {
            "permalink": "analytics",
            "image_id": "ca9c73c2692e4557924ec8ed54c34083",
            "uuid": "99c5404c-0ff5-8ee5-d334-4b944ddb8cd9",
            "entity_def_id": "category",
            "value": "Analytics"
          },
          {
            "permalink": "software",
            "image_id": "f137af6adb1a4170908597d523483c13",
            "uuid": "c08b5441-a05b-9777-b7a6-012728caddd9",
            "entity_def_id": "category",
            "value": "Software"
          }
        ],
        "source": {
          "permalink": "fiveonefour",
          "image_id": "aa125f087c634b89a8fe2892033f28ec",
          "uuid": "2d44d8e3-d7cb-4983-9a35-f78060dffe9c",
          "entity_def_id": "organization",
          "value": "Fiveonefour"
        },
        "identifier": {
          "uuid": "b6570d4b-33d2-4dd7-952a-11b90bd7df72",
          "entity_def_id": "org_similarity",
          "value": "Fiveonefour competes with Evidence"
        },
        "score": 97.0,
        "product_similarities": [
          {
            "entity_def_id": "product_similarity",
            "uuid": "1e700a04-4e65-46a9-b1f8-0e68fb25d76e",
            "value": "Moose is similar to Open Source Framework"
          }
        ],
        "target": {
          "permalink": "evidence-1cfc",
          "image_id": "jksqcivnsmajx29z3aa3",
          "uuid": "893bf234-3e1c-4476-94ab-83e4b1fe1cfc",
          "entity_def_id": "organization",
          "value": "Evidence"
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

Outcome

Check your result

The first request should identify your intended organization. In the similarity response, source.uuid should match that organization; use target.uuid to identify the peer company. A similarity record UUID identifies the relationship, not the peer. Inspect the returned overlap fields before treating a match as relevant.

Search requests here use limit: 3 for a small first page. For a complete result set, follow search pagination while preserving the filters and ordering. For request failures, use the shared request and retry guidance.