Grata is a New York-based platform that tries to solve that by putting company intelligence, AI-powered search, and deal workflows into one place.
With a database of over 19 million private company profiles and a G2 rating of 4.8 out of 5, it has built a solid reputation among middle-market dealmakers looking for a genuine edge over the competition.
Key Takeaways
- Grata covers 19M+ private companies with data it claims is 99% accurate, including financials, executive contacts, and transaction history.
- The platform combines business development tools, market intelligence, and agentic AI search in a single interface, reducing the need to jump between systems.
- Pricing is custom, annual, and seat-based, so it is built for professional teams rather than individual researchers or one-off projects.
What Is Grata?
Grata describes itself as a private markets intelligence platform. The core promise is speed: find the right companies faster, screen them with better data, and reach a decision before your competitors do.
It is aimed squarely at investment professionals, particularly those who cover the middle market where private company data is notoriously thin.
The platform has two main product areas: Business Development and Market Intelligence.
Business Development tools help users find and engage companies through features like deal sourcing, buyer list building, pipeline management, and conference planning.
Market Intelligence focuses on due diligence and pricing, giving users access to M&A comps, VC deal data, public company financials, and market fragmentation maps.
Grata also recently announced a merger with Sourcescrub, another private company data provider.
That combination is expected to expand coverage and depth across both platforms, though the full integration details are still rolling out.
Who Uses Grata?
The platform is built for five main customer types:
| User Type | Primary Use Case |
|---|---|
| Private Equity Firms | Business development, market mapping, deal sourcing |
| Investment Banks | Deal origination, buyer list building, banker-to-buyer introductions |
| Corporate Development Teams | Acquisition target research, competitive landscape analysis |
| Private Credit Funds | Deal signals, thematic market maps, faster underwriting |
| Consulting Firms | Market research, opportunity identification for clients |
Over 1,000 firms currently use the platform, and the client list includes recognizable names across the private markets ecosystem.
Grata has offices in New York, London, Paris, Frankfurt, and Sydney, reflecting its recent expansion into EMEA and APAC markets.
Core Features
Private Company Data
Grata's data layer is the foundation of the whole product. The company uses a combination of AI extraction, machine learning, and proprietary research to maintain what it says is 99% data accuracy.
Specifically, users get:
- Employee headcount estimates, including for companies with minimal online footprint
- Revenue estimates and financial filings
- Ownership and executive information
- Business locations across multiple geographies
- Verified contact information for over 8 million private company executives
That last point matters a lot in practice. Finding the right person to call at a lower-middle-market manufacturer is often the hardest part of sourcing.
Having verified contacts reduces the time between identifying a target and actually getting someone on the phone.
Agentic AI Search
Grata has leaned heavily into AI, and its Agentic Search feature is the clearest expression of that.
Rather than requiring users to build rigid Boolean queries, the search engine interprets natural language and surfaces relevant companies based on context.
Users can also search by similarity, which means inputting a known company and letting the platform find comparable private businesses.
Ben Hughes, Head of Business Development at Edgemont Partners, noted in a published case study that Grata was already building AI tools before the broader industry rushed to do the same.
That head start shows in the search quality, particularly for niche industries where standard keyword searches struggle.
Business Development Tools
The deal sourcing workflow in Grata includes several distinct features:
- Deal Sourcing: Find and connect with private company targets using AI search and filters
- Live Deals: A verified deal network where sell-side advisors share active mandates, including revenue, EBITDA, and valuation expectations, with buy-side firms
- Buyer List Building: Generate targeted acquirer lists for specific assets
- Conference and Event Planning: Search attendee lists ahead of industry events to prioritize meetings
- Pipeline Management: Manage company tracking, labels, and notes with CRM sync
The Live Deals feature is worth calling out specifically.
Getting access to vetted, active deals before they hit a broad audience is a meaningful advantage, and the integration of financial expectations directly into the deal card cuts down the back-and-forth typically required in early-stage conversations.
Market Intelligence Tools
On the research side, Grata offers:
- M&A Comps: Precedent transaction data for pricing deals
- Public Comps and Financials: Revenue and EBITDA multiples, operating margins, and reported financials for public companies
- VC and Growth Deal Data: Funding round history and valuations
- Market Fragmentation: Mapping tools that show ownership concentration across sub-sectors
- Industry Research: Sector-level analysis and published company lists curated by industry sources
An anonymous private equity analyst, quoted on Grata's site, described using the comps feature as the core reason they return to the platform regularly: inputting a company, seeing its size and market position, and quickly deciding whether to move forward or pass.
CRM Integrations
Grata integrates with Salesforce, HubSpot, and DealCloud.
There are two integration tiers. Basic CRM lets users push company and contact records to their CRM and filter search results to show or hide companies already in their pipeline.
Advanced CRM adds automatic sync, pulls up to 25 custom CRM fields into Grata, and surfaces relationship data across search results, company profiles, and conference planning tools.
For larger firms that have invested in DealCloud or Salesforce, this is the feature that turns Grata from a search tool into a true workflow layer.
API and Data Warehouse
For teams that want to build proprietary systems, Grata offers a full API with endpoints for company search, similar company discovery, enrichment at scale, and list management.
The Data Warehouse option delivers the full underlying dataset via SFTP or Snowflake, refreshed weekly, covering private company fundamentals, executive contacts, employee details, business locations, and conference data.
This is designed for quant teams, data scientists, and firms building their own internal models.
Pricing
Grata does not publish specific prices on its website. Pricing is annual and varies by the number of seats, CRM integration tier, and any add-ons selected.
The company offers custom configurations and assigns a dedicated customer success manager to each account.
Self-reported outcomes from Grata's customer base give some context for the value proposition:
- 2 to 6 times more deals sourced
- 10 to 20 percent better returns
- 30 percent efficiency gain in research workflows
- 70 percent of the time being first to a deal
George Gould of Azul reported saving $120,000 per year after switching to Grata. Andrew Hadley of Normandy Advisory sourced 15 deals for clients in the first year.
Wills Hurtas of Copley Equity Partners saved three hours per day, which translated to more CEO meetings and more time on diligence.
These are outcomes reported by customers and featured in Grata case studies, so they reflect best-case scenarios, but the pattern across multiple firms is consistent enough to be meaningful.
Grata vs. Competitors
Grata positions itself directly against PitchBook and ZoomInfo.
The comparison page for PitchBook on Grata's site emphasizes its AI-native search and private company focus, while the ZoomInfo comparison highlights data depth on non-sponsored businesses.
Andrew Wert of Air Techniques International described looking at Capital IQ before choosing Grata and finding a significant gap in the quality of private company data.
The honest difference comes down to focus. PitchBook covers a broader universe including VC, growth, and public markets with a large research team behind it.
ZoomInfo is a sales intelligence tool adapted for dealmakers.
Grata is purpose-built for private market deal professionals who need depth on the middle market specifically, including founder-owned businesses, bootstrapped companies, and non-sponsored names that other databases tend to miss.
What Users Say
Reviews on G2 land at 4.8 out of 5. Consistent themes across reviews include the quality of keyword and semantic search, the accuracy of company profiles, and the responsiveness of the customer success team.
Criticisms tend to center on data gaps for very small or highly localized companies, and some users note a learning curve with the more advanced search filters.
Frank Leibly of Alcon Partners described it as close to what he would design if building the ideal prospecting tool from scratch.
Aaron Smith of L.E.K. Consulting credited the platform with surfacing insights that would have been impossible to find through other means.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Extensive private company database with 19M+ profiles
- AI-powered search that handles natural language and similarity queries
- Live deal network with financial details included
- Strong CRM integrations for Salesforce, HubSpot, and DealCloud
- Dedicated customer success manager on every account
- Expanding international coverage in UK, France, Germany, and Australia
Cons:
- No published pricing; requires a demo call to get numbers
- Annual commitment only, no monthly option at the platform level
- Some data gaps for very small or regionally concentrated companies
- Full feature set may be more than needed for small teams focused on a single strategy
Conclusion
Grata is a well-built platform for private equity, investment banking, and corporate development teams that source and evaluate middle-market companies at volume.
If your team needs comprehensive private company data, AI-assisted search, and deal workflow tools in one place, it delivers enough depth to justify the investment.