CB Insights
CB Insights sells private-market data and analyst research on startups and VC deals.
On the record
Checkpoint: Two to three quarters of revenue data to show if Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude, and Glean partnerships stop the decline
The call
Revenue has nearly halved in a year and a half while bigger rivals ship their own AI, and the data-layer pivot hasn't turned the numbers yet.
CB Insights collects information about millions of companies and uses AI to help investors and business leaders understand markets and find opportunities. Big competitors like Bloomberg and S&P are now building their own AI tools that do similar work, and general AI chatbots can now pull together the same public information CB Insights does, often for free or cheaper. The one thing that could save CB Insights is whether its partnerships with Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT, and other AI platforms actually start bringing in enough money to stop the company's revenue from falling (it dropped roughly in half between late 2024 and early 2026).
Why
01
AI pressure: ChatGPT, Claude, and other general LLMs doing news/patent/hiring aggregation directly. LLMs now do the aggregation and summarization that used to require a CB Insights subscription, for free or near-free. Could AI do the core job? Yes, likely.
02
Bigger players: Bloomberg Terminal (ASKB), S&P Capital IQ Pro, PitchBook Navigator. Bigger rivals with more capital have already shipped their own agentic AI layers on top of deeper data and existing enterprise seats. Could a giant copy it? Yes, easily.
03
What protects it. A curated database of 10 to 12 million companies with analyst scoring that's expensive to replicate quickly.
What would change this call
CB Insights reports two consecutive quarters of revenue growth. Would show the AI-data-layer pivot (Copilot, Glean, Snowflake deals) is reversing the ~45% revenue decline.
The $800M sale process from 2023 closes, restarts, or is formally dropped. Would clarify whether a buyer values the data moat or the business is being wound down.
CEO Karl Kong remains in place through mid-2027 without departure. Would indicate leadership stability after two prior CEO exits in two years.
The $800M sale process from 2023 closes, restarts, or is formally dropped. Would clarify whether a buyer values the data moat or the business is being wound down.
CEO Karl Kong remains in place through mid-2027 without departure. Would indicate leadership stability after two prior CEO exits in two years.
Key numbers
- Revenue fell from $145.8M to $79.8M in 15 months
- Headcount down to 263 from 389 in 2022
- Growth Score sits at 0/100
Named risks
- Two CEO changes in about two years, ending with Karl Kong taking over June 2026, signal leadership instability.
- Revenue estimates fell from about $145.8M in October 2024 to about $79.8M by early 2026 per getlatka.com.
- Headcount declined from 389 in November 2022 to 263 by June 2026 with a 0/100 growth score.
- 2023 sale process valued at $800M remains unresolved as of mid-2026, creating ownership uncertainty.
- Core aggregation-and-summarization function increasingly replicable by general-purpose LLMs and agentic AI.
Rivals, as read in July 2026
| Rival | Direction | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Bloomberg Terminal (ASKB) | losing to | Bloomberg shipped agentic AI (ASKB) into its Terminal by 2025-2026, competing directly on aggregation |
| S&P Capital IQ Pro | losing to | S&P layered generative AI features into Capital IQ Pro, intensifying pressure per 2026-04 report |
| PitchBook Navigator | contesting | Morningstar-owned PitchBook seen as more financially rigorous VC/PE data alternative as of 2026 |
| FactSet | losing to | FactSet shipped AI Document Search features, adding competitive pressure per 2026-04 brief |
| AlphaSense | gaining on | AlphaSense expanded into private/public market research via Tegus acquisition, broadening overlap |
| Crunchbase | contesting | Crunchbase offers broader, cheaper, crowdsourced alternative pressuring CB Insights pricing |
Questions people ask
- Is CB Insights profitable in 2026?
- Profitability is not disclosed. Third-party estimates show revenue falling from about $145.8M in October 2024 to about $79.8M by early 2026, per getlatka.com, a roughly 45 percent decline that suggests financial pressure rather than confirmed profit.
- Is CB Insights shrinking or growing its headcount?
- Shrinking. Crustdata.com tracked headcount at about 389 in November 2022, 287 in September 2024, and 263 by June 2026, with a Growth Score of 0/100 as of mid-2026, indicating sustained contraction rather than growth.
- Could AI replace CB Insights?
- Partially. CB Insights' core work of aggregating public signals into company profiles is exactly what LLMs increasingly do natively. It is responding by embedding its data into Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT, and Claude, but revenue estimates still fell to about $79.8M by early 2026.
- Who is CB Insights' biggest competitor?
- Bloomberg Terminal with its ASKB agentic AI, S&P Capital IQ Pro, and PitchBook Navigator are the main pressure sources, alongside FactSet, all of which shipped competing generative-AI features by 2025 to 2026, per the company's evidence brief.
- Who owns CB Insights?
- CB Insights remains privately held as of mid-2026. Bloomberg reported in September 2023 that the company was exploring a sale valued around $800 million, but no completed transaction has been publicly confirmed since.
- Did CB Insights ever try to sell the company?
- Yes. Bloomberg reported on September 8, 2023 that CB Insights was weighing a sale that could value the company at approximately $800 million after engaging investment banks; no resolution has been publicly confirmed as of mid-2026.
Timeline
- 2026-06Karl Kong, former Chief Product Officer, becomes CEO
- 2026-06Partners with Glean to embed data into enterprise AI workflows
- 2026-05Former CEO Manlio Carrelli leaves to become CEO of Stensul
- 2025-12Launches Anthropic Claude integration and Shortlist Analyst AI agent
- 2025-10Launches ChatGPT enterprise integration
- 2025-06Unveils 11-agent Team of Agents AI workforce and Snowflake Marketplace partnership
- 2024-01Founder Anand Sanwal steps down as CEO after 14 years, becomes Executive Chairman
- 2023-09Bloomberg reports CB Insights exploring sale valued around $800 million
- 2020Receives $5M PPP loan
- 2009Founded as ChubbyBrain, later renamed CB Insights
Revision history
21 July 2026
First assessed. Losing its protection. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.
In the same band
Sources
- $79.8M Est. ARR, $11.7M Raised (2026-07-03)
- CB Insights - Headcount, Funding & Open Jobs (2026-07-07)
- CB Insights Software Pricing & Plans 2025 (2024-11-19)
- CB Insights Stock Price, Funding, Valuation, Revenue & Financial Statements
- VC Intel Provider CB Insights Said to Weigh $800 Million Sale (2023-09-08)
- CB Insights (2026-02-12)
- CB Insights Unveils Industry's First AI Agent Workforce... (2025-06-26)
- New in October from CB Insights (2025-11-25)
- New in December from CB Insights (2026-01-20)
- Products, Competitors, Financials, Employees, Headquarters Locations (2026-06-16)
- CEO change, yeah really (2024-01-30)
- Stensul Appoints Former CB Insights CEO Manlio Carrelli (2026-05-11)