Surface Competitors and Reasoning for Diligence Workflows
Persona: Investor
Use Case: Strengthen diligence with defensible competitive context
Primary API(s): Entity Lookup and Competitor Search (Org Similarity endpoint)
Goal: Given a target or portfolio company, return its ranked competitor set with the reasoning behind each pairing, product overlap, shared customer segments, and geography. Use the output to evaluate competitive intensity, validate market positioning, and identify adjacent companies that fit your investment thesis as potential sourcing opportunities.
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
API Reference & Documentation
Key Fields for this Query:
| field_id | What this field does | operator_id (these are the compatible operators per field) |
|---|---|---|
| uuid | Crunchbase’s Unique Identifier (this is what’s being returned). | blank;eq;includes;not_eq;not_includes |
| website_url | Use this field_id to search for your source company by its domain/website (this will go into your query) | domain_blank;domain_eq;domain_includes;not_domain_eq;not_domain_include |
Sample Query
For this example, assume you're evaluating Fiveonefour as a potential investment. Start by retrieving the company's UUID then.
{
"field_ids": [
"uuid",
"website_url"
],
"query": [
{
"field_id": "website_url",
"operator_id": "domain_eq",
"type": "predicate",
"values": [
"www.fiveonefour.com/"
]
}
]
}Response
{
"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
https://data.crunchbase.com/reference/searchorgsimilarities
API Reference & Documentation
Key Fields for this Query:
| field_id | What this field does | operator_id (these are the compatible operators per field) |
|---|---|---|
| source | The company whose competitors you want to find. Filter by its UUID | blank;contains;eq;includes;not_contains;not_eq;not_includes;starts |
| target | The competitor (similar company) returned for the source. | blank;contains;eq;includes;not_contains;not_eq;not_includes;starts |
| score | The similarity score for the match. Use it to rank or threshold competitors. | between;blank;eq;gt;gte;lt;lte;not_eq |
| category_overlap | The shared industries the two companies operate in. | blank;includes;includes_all;not_includes;not_includes_all |
| location_overlap | Shared geography, down to the region level (city, region, country) | blank;includes;includes_all;not_includes;not_includes_all |
| product_similarities | Overlapping products that make the two companies compete | blank;includes;includes_all;not_includes;not_includes_all |
| additional_reasons | Currently only flags when the overlap is global (more additional reasons are on our product roadmap) | Not currently queryable. |
The response returns a ranked list of organizations that compete with the target company, each with a competitive score and the signals explaining the relationship, 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.
{
"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"
}
]
}
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"
}
}
},
{
"uuid": "8cc1fe40-4868-4f3f-bb75-161d08f116b2",
"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": "8cc1fe40-4868-4f3f-bb75-161d08f116b2",
"entity_def_id": "org_similarity",
"value": "Fiveonefour competes with Metabase"
},
"score": 93.0,
"location_overlap": [
{
"entity_def_id": "location",
"permalink": "north-america",
"uuid": "b25caef9-a1b8-3a5d-6232-93b2dfb6a1d1",
"value": "North America"
},
{
"entity_def_id": "location",
"permalink": "united-states",
"uuid": "f110fca2-1055-99f6-996d-011c198b3928",
"value": "United States"
}
],
"target": {
"permalink": "metabase",
"image_id": "v1444771390/alcxwm5ap5koe3jneaku.png",
"uuid": "78ba524a-d9d0-4bc9-8238-fdff3dcdf963",
"entity_def_id": "organization",
"value": "Metabase"
}
}
},
{
"uuid": "f5300593-7d5a-4c7c-9ddd-65dcd44c2fb0",
"properties": {
"category_overlap": [
{
"permalink": "saas-5c4e",
"image_id": "cbd89f89c08640e3bc32bf8961505fc2",
"uuid": "5c4e6926-5ff7-b188-0892-c8eb036c5ace",
"entity_def_id": "category",
"value": "SaaS"
},
{
"permalink": "analytics",
"image_id": "ca9c73c2692e4557924ec8ed54c34083",
"uuid": "99c5404c-0ff5-8ee5-d334-4b944ddb8cd9",
"entity_def_id": "category",
"value": "Analytics"
}
],
"source": {
"permalink": "fiveonefour",
"image_id": "aa125f087c634b89a8fe2892033f28ec",
"uuid": "2d44d8e3-d7cb-4983-9a35-f78060dffe9c",
"entity_def_id": "organization",
"value": "Fiveonefour"
},
"identifier": {
"uuid": "f5300593-7d5a-4c7c-9ddd-65dcd44c2fb0",
"entity_def_id": "org_similarity",
"value": "Fiveonefour competes with Cube Dev"
},
"score": 92.0,
"location_overlap": [
{
"entity_def_id": "location",
"permalink": "north-america",
"uuid": "b25caef9-a1b8-3a5d-6232-93b2dfb6a1d1",
"value": "North America"
},
{
"entity_def_id": "location",
"permalink": "united-states",
"uuid": "f110fca2-1055-99f6-996d-011c198b3928",
"value": "United States"
}
],
"target": {
"permalink": "cube-dev",
"image_id": "mwxkxjwko6fmfnbjtcaz",
"uuid": "fab8bc64-d76f-4460-8ce7-71df70951a1d",
"entity_def_id": "organization",
"value": "Cube Dev"
}
}
},
{
"uuid": "4e7345cb-56be-4ab3-8d5a-29fb65f1598d",
"properties": {
"category_overlap": [
{
"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": "4e7345cb-56be-4ab3-8d5a-29fb65f1598d",
"entity_def_id": "org_similarity",
"value": "Fiveonefour competes with GrowthBook"
},
"score": 91.0,
"location_overlap": [
{
"entity_def_id": "location",
"permalink": "north-america",
"uuid": "b25caef9-a1b8-3a5d-6232-93b2dfb6a1d1",
"value": "North America"
},
{
"entity_def_id": "location",
"permalink": "united-states",
"uuid": "f110fca2-1055-99f6-996d-011c198b3928",
"value": "United States"
}
],
"target": {
"permalink": "growth-book",
"image_id": "afxyyjp0baaebwqtoe8j",
"uuid": "54c40590-0064-4386-abf5-ba199c45bbc5",
"entity_def_id": "organization",
"value": "GrowthBook"
}
}
},
{
"uuid": "588ce5ce-f151-46d5-bbf6-1c56b1b5fb8c",
"properties": {
"category_overlap": [
{
"permalink": "saas-5c4e",
"image_id": "cbd89f89c08640e3bc32bf8961505fc2",
"uuid": "5c4e6926-5ff7-b188-0892-c8eb036c5ace",
"entity_def_id": "category",
"value": "SaaS"
},
{
"permalink": "software",
"image_id": "f137af6adb1a4170908597d523483c13",
"uuid": "c08b5441-a05b-9777-b7a6-012728caddd9",
"entity_def_id": "category",
"value": "Software"
},
{
"permalink": "artificial-intelligence",
"image_id": "930c72a5a7b544999596ac1c0dc8b549",
"uuid": "c4d8caf3-5fe7-359b-f9f2-2d708378e4ee",
"entity_def_id": "category",
"value": "Artificial Intelligence (AI)"
}
],
"source": {
"permalink": "fiveonefour",
"image_id": "aa125f087c634b89a8fe2892033f28ec",
"uuid": "2d44d8e3-d7cb-4983-9a35-f78060dffe9c",
"entity_def_id": "organization",
"value": "Fiveonefour"
},
"identifier": {
"uuid": "588ce5ce-f151-46d5-bbf6-1c56b1b5fb8c",
"entity_def_id": "org_similarity",
"value": "Fiveonefour competes with Lightdash"
},
"score": 89.0,
"location_overlap": [
{
"entity_def_id": "location",
"permalink": "north-america",
"uuid": "b25caef9-a1b8-3a5d-6232-93b2dfb6a1d1",
"value": "North America"
},
{
"entity_def_id": "location",
"permalink": "united-states",
"uuid": "f110fca2-1055-99f6-996d-011c198b3928",
"value": "United States"
}
],
"target": {
"permalink": "lightdash",
"image_id": "1c3c7ecd819e45879f8987babbbf2fea",
"uuid": "301bce04-1610-4369-a9db-29de9623e65f",
"entity_def_id": "organization",
"value": "Lightdash"
}
}
},
{
"uuid": "180c7d64-5af1-4526-ba7e-9777bf8191ff",
"properties": {
"category_overlap": [
{
"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": "180c7d64-5af1-4526-ba7e-9777bf8191ff",
"entity_def_id": "org_similarity",
"value": "Fiveonefour competes with Tremor"
},
"score": 85.0,
"product_similarities": [
{
"entity_def_id": "product_similarity",
"uuid": "199a377c-b76f-46ef-a6c2-6e19421a5a9e",
"value": "Moose is similar to Table Component"
}
],
"target": {
"permalink": "tremor-bbf0",
"image_id": "lkyonocgpqakymwdirnt",
"uuid": "515899ef-aa60-46f7-bcf2-9006178fbbf0",
"entity_def_id": "organization",
"value": "Tremor"
}
}
},
{
"uuid": "9ed1d950-d8cd-4afc-87e1-5bc96df47afc",
"properties": {
"category_overlap": [
{
"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": "9ed1d950-d8cd-4afc-87e1-5bc96df47afc",
"entity_def_id": "org_similarity",
"value": "Fiveonefour competes with The Apache Software Foundation"
},
"score": 85.0,
"location_overlap": [
{
"entity_def_id": "location",
"permalink": "north-america",
"uuid": "b25caef9-a1b8-3a5d-6232-93b2dfb6a1d1",
"value": "North America"
},
{
"entity_def_id": "location",
"permalink": "united-states",
"uuid": "f110fca2-1055-99f6-996d-011c198b3928",
"value": "United States"
}
],
"target": {
"permalink": "apache",
"image_id": "v1488034159/lnn3lf5pxcpk8dsl3paa.png",
"uuid": "64e8976f-65ae-687b-3643-431de6e60254",
"entity_def_id": "organization",
"value": "The Apache Software Foundation"
}
}
},
{
"uuid": "d2204d13-3157-487b-87e7-5f7c5ba2d66a",
"properties": {
"category_overlap": [
{
"permalink": "saas-5c4e",
"image_id": "cbd89f89c08640e3bc32bf8961505fc2",
"uuid": "5c4e6926-5ff7-b188-0892-c8eb036c5ace",
"entity_def_id": "category",
"value": "SaaS"
},
{
"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": "d2204d13-3157-487b-87e7-5f7c5ba2d66a",
"entity_def_id": "org_similarity",
"value": "Fiveonefour competes with Preset"
},
"score": 83.0,
"product_similarities": [
{
"entity_def_id": "product_similarity",
"uuid": "c8fb367e-6181-43cd-ac7e-93115bf7d955",
"value": "Aurora AI is similar to Preset AI Assist"
}
],
"target": {
"permalink": "preset",
"image_id": "waipsihm1nwieoevumef",
"uuid": "d8e7a3e2-7b79-4198-b063-8f3228a4088f",
"entity_def_id": "organization",
"value": "Preset"
}
}
},
{
"uuid": "755d609d-b3f6-44ba-bd5c-0e51d9d36cd0",
"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": "755d609d-b3f6-44ba-bd5c-0e51d9d36cd0",
"entity_def_id": "org_similarity",
"value": "Fiveonefour competes with Pyramid Analytics"
},
"score": 81.0,
"target": {
"permalink": "pyramid-analytics",
"image_id": "kj4kgi0mhfnmirsetl8w",
"uuid": "417ff952-f515-c421-9e62-4d4e1782266b",
"entity_def_id": "organization",
"value": "Pyramid Analytics"
}
}
},
{
"uuid": "4ca24024-1781-454e-a6ae-4558c332cf07",
"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"
},
{
"permalink": "artificial-intelligence",
"image_id": "930c72a5a7b544999596ac1c0dc8b549",
"uuid": "c4d8caf3-5fe7-359b-f9f2-2d708378e4ee",
"entity_def_id": "category",
"value": "Artificial Intelligence (AI)"
}
],
"source": {
"permalink": "fiveonefour",
"image_id": "aa125f087c634b89a8fe2892033f28ec",
"uuid": "2d44d8e3-d7cb-4983-9a35-f78060dffe9c",
"entity_def_id": "organization",
"value": "Fiveonefour"
},
"identifier": {
"uuid": "4ca24024-1781-454e-a6ae-4558c332cf07",
"entity_def_id": "org_similarity",
"value": "Fiveonefour competes with Sigma Computing"
},
"score": 75.0,
"location_overlap": [
{
"entity_def_id": "location",
"permalink": "north-america",
"uuid": "b25caef9-a1b8-3a5d-6232-93b2dfb6a1d1",
"value": "North America"
},
{
"entity_def_id": "location",
"permalink": "united-states",
"uuid": "f110fca2-1055-99f6-996d-011c198b3928",
"value": "United States"
}
],
"target": {
"permalink": "sigma-computing",
"image_id": "ij70c4a39hevdjnuvbq6",
"uuid": "3371efd2-6e8a-44c9-94c2-22afad514c4b",
"entity_def_id": "organization",
"value": "Sigma Computing"
}
}
}
]
}
Outcome
Each competitor in the response comes with the reasoning behind why it competes, across products, markets, categories, and geographic presence
For investors, that turns a raw list of similar companies into a workflow input. Use it to validate competitive positioning during diligence, benchmark portfolio companies against active peers, and surface adjacent companies that fit the thesis as potential sourcing leads.