Find early-stage companies
Filter companies by funding criteria, then retrieve their details.
Before you begin
This example was verified with Advanced Financials 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: Venture capital and M&A teams
Use case: Find early-stage companies
Primary APIs: Organization Search and Organization Lookup
Step 1
Filter Companies to Relevant ICP
Filter organizations whose latest funding type is Seed or Series A and whose latest funding date is on or after January 1, 2026. Categories and valuation are returned for review; they are not filters in this example.
Endpoint
POST https://api.crunchbase.com/v4/data/searches/organizations
API Reference & Documentation
Key Fields for this Query:
| field_id | What this field does | operator_id (these are the compatible operators per field) |
|---|---|---|
| last_funding_at | Identifies the date of the last funding round | between;blank;eq;gte;lte |
| last_funding_type | Identifies the last funding round type (e.g. Seed, Series A, Private Equity) | blank;eq;includes;not_eq;not_includes |
| categories | Identifies the type of organization (e.g., SaaS, Android, Cloud Computing, Medical Device | blank;includes;includes_all;not_includes;not_includes_all |
Search by latest funding stage and date
The following call is narrowing down companies to Seed and Series A with a latest funding date on or after January 1, 2026. The field_ids ask to return information around categories (i.e. industries), the last funding date of the company, the type of funding it raised most recently, its reported valuation and the number of funding rounds they have gone through before.
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": [
"categories",
"identifier",
"last_funding_at",
"last_funding_type",
"valuation",
"num_funding_rounds"
],
"query": [
{
"field_id": "last_funding_at",
"operator_id": "gte",
"type": "predicate",
"values": [
"2026-01-01"
]
},
{
"field_id": "last_funding_type",
"operator_id": "includes",
"type": "predicate",
"values": [
"seed",
"series_a"
]
}
],
"limit": 3
}'Here is an example of a response to the query above:
{
"count": 126,
"entities": [
{
"uuid": "31bb23c0-d028-43c0-a49c-16908a5867e8",
"properties": {
"identifier": {
"permalink": "lmarena",
"image_id": "64a0297694304c1b9ee644c9e0fca405",
"uuid": "31bb23c0-d028-43c0-a49c-16908a5867e8",
"entity_def_id": "organization",
"value": "LMArena"
},
"valuation": {
"value": 1700000000,
"currency": "USD",
"value_usd": 1700000000
},
"num_funding_rounds": 2,
"last_funding_at": "2026-01-06",
"last_funding_type": "series_a",
"categories": [
{
"permalink": "artificial-intelligence",
"image_id": "930c72a5a7b544999596ac1c0dc8b549",
"uuid": "c4d8caf3-5fe7-359b-f9f2-2d708378e4ee",
"entity_def_id": "category",
"value": "Artificial Intelligence (AI)"
},
{
"permalink": "information-services-f579",
"image_id": "3561862d356f4b61ad312f13a43abe38",
"uuid": "f579213a-60af-8bb3-309b-1d80607ad2a9",
"entity_def_id": "category",
"value": "Information Services"
},
{
"permalink": "machine-learning",
"image_id": "e83f580a280f48f39d789180bce8c2d9",
"uuid": "5ea0cdb7-c9a6-47fc-50f8-c9b0fac04863",
"entity_def_id": "category",
"value": "Machine Learning"
},
{
"permalink": "product-research",
"image_id": "03a37b78c144455fa9b0a62b5c2a0f78",
"uuid": "f213df87-6356-e51f-245a-cf9b7e788b13",
"entity_def_id": "category",
"value": "Product Research"
}
]
}
}
]
}Step 2
Reveal Key Signals for Identified Companies
In this step, we’ll reveal additional information about the organizations you identified in step 1, such as funding rounds, investors and press releases.
Endpoint
https://data.crunchbase.com/reference/getorganization-2
API Reference & Documentation
The lookup below uses LMArena as an example. Replace its UUID with an organization UUID returned in Step 1 to review your selected company’s funding, investors, and press.
curl --include --request GET \
--url 'https://api.crunchbase.com/v4/data/entities/organizations/31bb23c0-d028-43c0-a49c-16908a5867e8?field_ids=&card_ids=raised_funding_rounds,press_references,investors' \
--header "X-cb-user-key: $CRUNCHBASE_API_KEY" \
--header 'Accept: application/json'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.
The shortened historical response illustrates funding-round, investor, and press cards for LMArena. It retains only fields discussed here and one representative item per array, including nested arrays. Use the full API response for your own review; omitted records and fields are not absent data.
{
"properties": {
"identifier": {
"uuid": "31bb23c0-d028-43c0-a49c-16908a5867e8",
"value": "Arena",
"image_id": "ff0221ab790b4d35b27ee7060adb2c18",
"permalink": "lmarena",
"entity_def_id": "organization"
}
},
"cards": {
"investors": [
{
"identifier": {
"uuid": "69a2d884-0ac6-4527-b2f4-ad9af2c5a0f2",
"value": "01 Advisors",
"image_id": "pkhnu1i2ge3bxok3htzy",
"permalink": "01-advisors-01",
"entity_def_id": "organization"
},
"short_description": "01A is a venture firm founded by a team of operators to help entrepreneurs build great companies."
}
],
"press_references": [
{
"identifier": {
"uuid": "391c3f58-962b-49b1-b904-edf2e49bfe56",
"value": "Dragonfly\u5408\u4f19\u4ebaHaseeb Qureshi\u5426\u8ba4Polymarket CEO\u632a\u7528\u516c\u53f8\u8d44\u91d1",
"entity_def_id": "press_reference"
},
"title": "Dragonfly\u5408\u4f19\u4ebaHaseeb Qureshi\u5426\u8ba4Polymarket CEO\u632a\u7528\u516c\u53f8\u8d44\u91d1",
"publisher": "panewslab.com",
"posted_on": "2026-10-21",
"url": {
"value": "https://www.panewslab.com/zh/newsflash"
}
}
],
"raised_funding_rounds": [
{
"identifier": {
"uuid": "8957ab80-1813-4f35-974c-172dc5206d4e",
"value": "Series B - Arena",
"image_id": "ff0221ab790b4d35b27ee7060adb2c18",
"permalink": "lmarena-series-b--8957ab80",
"entity_def_id": "funding_round"
},
"announced_on": "2026-10-08",
"investment_type": "series_b",
"money_raised": {
"value": 200000000,
"currency": "USD",
"value_usd": 200000000
},
"pre_money_valuation": {
"value": 2900000000,
"currency": "USD",
"value_usd": 2900000000
},
"investor_identifiers": [
{
"role": "investor",
"uuid": "69a2d884-0ac6-4527-b2f4-ad9af2c5a0f2",
"value": "01 Advisors",
"image_id": "pkhnu1i2ge3bxok3htzy",
"permalink": "01-advisors-01",
"entity_def_id": "organization"
}
]
}
]
}
}From this response, we’re able to conclude:
Review the returned round date, amount, valuation, investor identity, and press source against your research criteria. A Seed or Series A label alone does not establish company maturity or investment suitability.
Funding amounts and investor identities provide research context. They do not establish reduced investment risk or imply a recommendation.
Additional Suggestions
Suggested CRM / Deal Tool Mapping (Salesforce, HubSpot, Affinity, DealCloud)
- Map funding stage + last round date to your internal deal stages
- Use employee count + revenue range to gauge company maturity and check size fit
- Create a simple field like “Recently Funded = Yes” for companies that raised in your target window
- Add funding and press summaries directly into Investment Notes / IC Memo prep
- Auto-flag companies that match your thesis for analyst review or partner queue
Suggested Data Warehouse / Reverse ETL Setup
- Store funding history and valuation snapshots to track momentum over time
- Push priority scores and flags back into Affinity, DealCloud, or your CRM
- Track how signals (new funding, investor quality, press) impact deal progression
Best Practices
- Cache the organization UUID (it doesn’t change)
- Refresh funding and press data every 24–48 hours
- Use press as an early signal for product launches, partnerships, expansions
- Prioritize companies that show both thesis fit + recent activity
Check your result
Inspect the returned fields against your filters. An empty entities array is a valid result: broaden one filter at a time if needed. Fixed dates are example inputs; adjust them to your research period.
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.
Updated about 11 hours ago