The Private Market Data Buyer’s Guide

The Current State of the Private Market

Competition in the private market is fiercer than ever.

Public markets have become increasingly saturated over the last several years, eating away at investors’ ability to consistently generate alpha. This has led investors to turn to private markets, where fragmented, niche industries create more opportunity for differentiation.

Private markets are currently worth an estimated $13T. That number is projected to balloon to over $20T in the next five years, according to BlackRock’s 2025 Private Markets Outlook — reflecting growing investor appetite for alternatives to the public market.

Even during periods of economic uncertainty, institutional investors and limited partners (LPs) continue to back private equity. As of this year, the space has accumulated a record-high $2.5T in dry powder.

To capitalize on the many opportunities in the private market, investors need accurate private market data captured with AI technology.

Why Is Finding Quality Private Market Data Difficult?

The trick of it is that accurate private market data is notoriously hard to find, especially when it comes to middle-market companies. In the US, privately owned businesses aren’t required to disclose financials, ownership, or strategic moves in the same way that public businesses are. Investment-grade data on the private middle market can be even more elusive, as many companies operating in the space have limited online presence.

Of course, different regions have different regulatory standards. In the UK, for example, privately owned companies that meet certain size criteria are required to file annual financial statements with Companies House. But a significant number of firms don’t meet those criteria, which still leaves investors with a blindspot.

As a result, the limited private market data that is available is often fragmented, outdated, or inaccurate. For example, company databases lack the depth needed for investment workflows. Meanwhile, generic large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT are trained on massive, diverse datasets so they can create content on a wide range of topics. They are not purpose-built for M&A workflows. Generic LLMs lack the specificity, accuracy, and analytical capabilities that dealmakers need to win the private market.

Simply put, investment-grade private market data is not observable — it has to be cultivated. The best private market data providers have spent years studying the private equity world, understanding the best proxies for company size, building data acquisition tools that capture the raw material, and then applying data science to mimic the decision-making and data verification methods used by top dealmakers.

So how do you know if the private market data platform you’re evaluating is one of the best? There are several key indicators to look for.

What Are the Most Important Private Market Data Points?

Private market dealmakers need a deep understanding of company financials, market behavior, and deal activity to guide strategic decisions, evaluate potential targets, and accurately price deals.

Here are the most critical data points that investors need from a private market platform:

Coverage. Investors cannot accurately scope a market if they’re only seeing the enterprise-level players. You need insight into the middle-market and small business players as well. For reference, Pitchbook has coverage on around 4.7M private companies while Grata covers over 16M.
Company fundamentals. These include accurate, usable descriptions, employee counts, industry classifications, business locations, and ownership details (i.e., whether the company is independently owned or backed by investors).
Private company stats. Dealmakers need data on business size, revenue ranges, ownership breakdowns, and executive teams for early-stage qualification and thesis validation.
Public company financials. Investors evaluate potential targets against comparable public companies (aka, public comps) using their industry classification, revenue and EBITDA multiples, operating margins, and other reported financials as benchmarks. It’s crucial that decision makers have access to up-to-date public financial data.
Transaction data. Dealmakers also rely heavily on insight into recent PE, corporate, add-on, VC, and growth deal data. Knowing who bought what, when, and at what valuation informs market activity, buyer intent, and valuation expectations.
Executive contact information. Once business development teams have identified a target, they need to be able to move from research to outreach without delay. That means having access to verified, up-to-date contact data for private company executives

The data listed above are the absolute must-haves for private market investors. But investors should also prioritize private market platforms that offer additional data to enhance the dealmaking process. This includes:

Conferences and attendee lists. Networking is a crucial element of industry research and building pipelines. Dealmakers should look for private market platforms that enable them to easily find conferences relevant to their industry. If the platform also offers searchable attendee data, that’s even better. Dealmakers can use this data to make the most out of their events schedule.
Published company lists. Company lists and rankings published by industry leaders can help streamline the research process. Dealmakers can investigate companies in your industry that have already been vetted by top publishers. They can also use these leading companies to identify trends, form comp sets, or understand fragmented markets.
Live deals. Private market platforms that offer data on live deals can give dealmakers an extra competitive edge. Access to live deal teasers allows prospective buyers to evaluate a company’s revenue, EBITDA, and valuation guidance quickly — sometimes before the deal is even officially on the market.

How Should Dealmakers Use Private Market Data?

Access to quality data is crucial for success in every step of the dealmaking process. Here’s how investors can get the most out of their private market data.

Market Analysis

To fully understand an industry’s total addressable market (TAM) and serviceable addressable market (SAM), dealmakers have to be able to see the full picture of the space. Any analysis or market mapping is incomplete without private market data.

Investors can use private market data to assess the available opportunities in new industries or subsegments:

Fragmentation data helps dealmakers understand the potential for new investors in the market by breaking down the proportion of public and private companies. This also helps investors understand the competitive landscape in the space, including the size and scale of current market players.
Sizing data provides insight into private companies’ employee headcount, revenue, and growth. Dealmakers can use this information to help determine if a given market aligns with their investment strategy.
Geographic data allows dealmakers to identify pockets of opportunity in their space. This insight is helpful in assessing ways to break into new markets or expand their existing footprint in an industry.

Once dealmakers have the lay of the land, they can use private market data to identify potential acquisition targets.

Target Identification and Evaluation

Accurate private market data enables dealmakers to find and connect with private companies in their target industries.

The best private market data platforms have smart filtering capabilities that allow dealmakers to refine their search by factors such as:

Revenue
Employee headcount
Growth rate
Business model
Ownership
Funding

This way, investors can easily find companies that align with their investment strategy. If a private market data platform is able to identify companies similar to a dealmaker’s targets, that’s even better. Dealmakers can use that tool to surface companies similar to those in their portfolio, and even discover new adjacencies to explore.

Valuation and Pricing

Private market dealmakers also need data on how similar companies — both public and private — in the space are performing to use as benchmarks when evaluating their targets. This is where comp data comes in.

Investors typically have an easier time getting a target company’s top executives to engage if they can give them a sense of what they think the company is worth. To understand how public markets value similar companies, investors need to analyze metrics like EBITDA multiples, growth, and margins.

Learn more about valuing private companies with public comps here.

Dealmakers also need to evaluate their targets against similar private companies by comparing estimated revenue, employee headcount, growth, funding, and more.

To accurately and confidently price their deal, investors must analyze the deals in the space that have already happened, aka precedent transactions. These provide real-world evidence of what the market has been willing to pay for similar companies.

Investors begin by identifying a group of recently completed transactions that involved companies similar in size, geography, and industry to the target company. Once they have a solid list of precedent transactions, dealmakers can analyze their purchase prices and valuation multiples. To fully contextualize the transactions and come up with a fair price for their own deal, investors should also model different deal scenarios that account for larger market conditions (e.g., disruption from new technology, tariffs, or other macro trends).

How Do Dealmakers Evaluate Private Market Data Quality?

The best way to assess private market data accuracy is to dig into it. Any private market data platform worth their salt lets prospective clients trial their product before signing.

Dealmakers should take this opportunity to test the data starting with their own firsthand knowledge. One way they can do this is to run searches for markets or companies that they’re familiar with and see how the data compares.

If the private market platform offers executive contact information, investors should be sure to fact-check that data using their own direct contacts or through their network.

Another key factor that dealmakers should evaluate when considering working with a private market data platform is how the platform leverages technology. Data quality and accuracy is largely dependent on frequent updates. Private market platforms need to make use of AI technology and multiple proprietary sources to keep their data fresh. The right AI tech will also enhance sourcing and diligence workflows by surfacing relevant recommendations for similar companies and market adjacencies.

In addition to technology, quality private market platforms should have contributory data capabilities — meaning its users should be able to provide data feedback and updates based on their own knowledge and experience.

How Accurate Is Accurate Enough?

The key to finding accurate private market data is not taking anything at face value. A single data point from a single source has a high chance of being incorrect. For example, employee headcount is a key metric used in sizing private companies. But if an investor only uses the number on the company’s LinkedIn profile, there’s a good chance they’ll be working with inaccurate data. This is especially true for middle- and lower-middle market companies, which often have limited online presences.

When considering private market data platforms, dealmakers should prioritize vendors that use a wide range of sources and methodologies. The more input they have to use as points of comparison and verification, the more accurate their data triangulation will be. This is another reason why reliable technology is so important — private market platforms must be equipped to constantly scrape and sift through new data sources to ensure their numbers are as accurate as possible.

Other FAQs

What is private market data?

Private market data refers to information about privately held companies that are not traded on public stock exchanges. This includes firmographics, growth signals, funding history, executive contacts, and operational details that are typically harder to find than data on public companies.

Why is private market data important?

It allows investors to uncover hidden opportunities, benchmark companies more accurately, manage risk proactively, and gain a competitive edge in sourcing and evaluating deals.

How is private market data collected?

Data is gathered from various sources such as company websites, press releases, regulatory filings, web traffic, hiring trends, and other proprietary data pipelines. AI and machine learning help structure this data for easier analysis.

What should I look for in a private market data provider?

Look for depth of coverage, accuracy, search flexibility, and workflow integration. A good provider should enable custom filtering, support CRM syncing, and offer up-to-date data on hard-to-find businesses.

How is AI improving private market data?

AI enhances data accuracy, automates pattern recognition, and enables predictive insights. It helps identify companies showing momentum or distress, matches firms to investment theses, and powers smart alerts and recommendations.

Can private market data integrate with existing systems?

Yes. Many providers offer integrations with CRMs like Salesforce, HubSpot, and DealCloud, making it easier to manage pipelines and track engagement within existing workflows.