How an AI marketer uses Crunchbase
Crunchbase is a database of private and public companies that's best known for funding data. Each company has a profile with its industry, location, size, founders, and every funding round Crunchbase has recorded, along with the investors behind each one.
An AI marketer uses Crunchbase to answer two questions: which companies should we be talking to right now, and what do we need to know about this one? A fresh funding round is one of the clearest reasons a company might buy, because it usually comes with new budget and a plan to grow. So the marketer searches for companies that raised recently and fit the target market, then reads each profile to decide who's worth contacting and what to say.
Kite does that work with your connected Crunchbase account. It turns your ideal customer profile into a Crunchbase search, reads the profiles that come back, and takes the results all the way to a scored lead list, a competitor report, or a sent campaign.
Marketing jobs Kite can do with Crunchbase
Crunchbase gives Kite two things: a search across the whole company database and the profile of any one company. The jobs below start with finding accounts, move to researching a single company in depth, and end with keeping your existing pipeline current.
Find recently funded companies that fit your market
Kite finds companies that just raised money and match the customers you want. It already knows your positioning and who buys from you, so it can write the Crunchbase search itself. Say you sell payroll software to growing startups. Kite might search for:
- companies whose last funding round closed in the past 60 days
- a round type of Series A or Series B
- an industry category such as financial services or software
- a headquarters in the United States or Canada
- a headcount between 11 and 200 employees
Crunchbase returns the companies that match. Kite reads the name, website, and description for each one, then removes your current customers and anyone your team has asked it to skip.
The result is a short list of accounts with a specific, dated reason to reach out. You can also put this search on a weekly schedule, and Kite brings you the new matches each Monday.
Research a single company before a call or a campaign
Kite reads a company's Crunchbase profile when it needs to understand that business in detail. It looks up the company by name or Crunchbase identifier and uses that profile wherever the work calls for it, such as a short brief before a sales call, a competitor report, or the opening line of an outreach email.
Check your existing accounts for new funding
Kite can check the companies already in your pipeline against its search for recently funded companies to see which ones have raised since you last talked. When a deal went quiet six months ago, a new round at that company is a good reason to get back in touch. Kite flags the accounts that turn up in the search and drafts a follow-up that mentions the news.
What Kite reads in Crunchbase
Information Kite can read
- Company search resultsLists of companies matched on funding date, funding stage, funding total, industry category, location, headcount range, and other Crunchbase fields.
- Company profilesThe profile Crunchbase holds for one company, looked up by name or Crunchbase identifier.
How Kite connects to Crunchbase
Kite is an AI marketer. It researches your business, builds a growth strategy, and ships the work that brings you new customers. You can work with Kite in the Kite web app or in Slack.
Add an API key for your Crunchbase account. Kite uses the access granted to that key. Crunchbase isn't built into Kite, so you'll need a Crunchbase plan that comes with API access, and the fields Kite can read depend on what your plan includes.
Once it's connected, start with a goal rather than a query. You might ask, "Find fintech startups in New York that raised a Series A this quarter and would be a good fit for us." Kite proposes the Crunchbase filters, the people it will look for at each company, and where the finished list goes, and it starts once you agree.
Where Crunchbase fits in Kite's marketing work
Crunchbase supplies the account side of a lead list. It tells Kite which companies fit your market and which ones have a fresh reason to buy. Kite then finds the right people at those companies through built-in sources such as Apollo, adds their work email and LinkedIn profile, and scores each person from one to five against your criteria. From there, it can add the leads to your CRM or write and send the campaign.
Crunchbase is where Kite gets a competitor's company profile. It combines that profile with its own research on the competitor's website, positioning, search presence, and ads, and in the finished report it cites Crunchbase beside each fact that came from there.
Crunchbase gives Kite a reason to reach back out to an account that went quiet. When a dormant lead's company turns up in Kite's search for recently funded companies, Kite moves that lead up the list and writes an email that opens with the news.
Common questions
Does Kite get contact details from Crunchbase?
No. Kite uses Crunchbase for company data, such as funding and industry. To reach people at those companies, Kite uses its built-in contact sources, which supply names, roles, work emails, and LinkedIn profiles without a separate account.
Can Kite research company funding without a Crunchbase account?
Yes. Kite's built-in sources include Crustdata, which covers company funding and hiring, and PredictLeads, which finds funding announcements and other company news. Connecting Crunchbase makes sense when your team already pays for it and wants Kite to work from the same funding data your team trusts.