Your guide to getting the most

out of the PitchBook Platform

About This Guide
PitchBook can perform a wide variety of functions to meet
your information and analysis needs. The purpose of this
guide is to help you navigate through PitchBook efficiently.

This guide outlines multiple ways that the PitchBook

Platform can be used, showing you how to effectively
build searches that result in accurate and relevant data.
 How To Use This Guide
Step 1: Select a category from the table of contents

Choose a category to view a list of search types. Return to the Table by clicking this icon: BACK TO
CONTENTS

Step 2: Select a search type from the category Menu

Select a search type within the category menu. Return to the Table by clicking this icon: BACK TO
CONTENTS

Step 3: Review the information

Each search topic has a description, search criteria tips, and sample searches

Step 4: View an Example or Tutorial

Click on an “Example” to open and view the search results within the PitchBook Platform

Step 5: Modify Criteria and Run Your Own Search

Once you’re in the PitchBook Platform, you can click the “Modify Search” option at the top-right
to change the fields and re-run the search to obtain your desired output

BACK TO
CONTENTS
Table of Contents
Click on a use case below, and we’ll walk you through the best way to find the data you need.

Advanced Searches Benchmarking and Fundraising Comps and Analysis

Comparable
Advisors & Funds by Fundraising – Valuations
Companies & Investors & Fund Returns - Deals and
Service Investment Firms and Open Charting & Capital Invested
Deals Buyers Benchmarking Precedent
Providers Preference Funds Analytics
Transactions

Limited Fund Returns - Funds Charting Funds Charting Exits – IPOs &
People Deal Multiples
Partners Quartiles & Analytics – Capital Raised Acquisitions

Business Development Other Platform Features

Saving Searches Saving Lists & Importing

Active Portfolio Aging Portfolio Identifying Co- & Creating Using Lists in a Entities into the
Search Search Investors Email Alerts Search Platform

Recommended
Downloading & Layouts for
Exporting Data Viewing Search
Results
 ADVANCED SEARCHES

Companies & Deals

This search allows you to screen for a list of companies or deals by using a wide variety of
search criteria. It can be used to find a set of companies within an industry or location, and
then diving deeper by viewing the details on their financing history.
How to conduct this search Sample searches on the PitchBook Platform
▪ Use the “Companies & Deals” search. Identify (ownership status) companies in (industry) that are based in
(location).
▪ Key Fields: This is the default section that displays the most
commonly used criteria for building out a search. • Example: Identify publicly held companies in Healthcare that are
located in California.
▪ Deal Types: This is where you can select the type of
transaction that the target companies were involved in. Screen for a list of (deal type) of (location)(industry) companies since (deal
date) that were (deal size range).
▪ Deal Criteria: Deal Date and Deal Size are common fields
used in conjunction with Deal Type. • Example: Identify the Buyouts of U.S. Information Technology
companies since 2014 that were at least $100M in size.
▪ Company Status: Options of filtering for publicly held or
privately held companies.

▪ Locations: This criteria is used to narrow the companies by

location. It’s recommended to select “Search HQ Only” to
pull in only the companies that are based in that location.

▪ Industries & Keywords

▪ Click the Industry or Vertical dropdown to see the

available options for how companies are categorized.

▪ You can also type in Keywords that will pull

companies into the search results based on their
business description.

BACK TO
CONTENTS
 ADVANCED SEARCHES

Investors & Buyers

This search identifies the most active investors that match the criteria, by looking at the
number of deals completed within a set time frame.

How to conduct this search Sample searches on the PitchBook Platform

▪ Use the “Investors & Buyers” search. Identify (investor type) involved in (deal type) within (location) in
▪ Investor Types: The platform tags an investor to multiple (industry), since (date).
types depending on how they behave. For example, a PE • Example: Identify the most active Angel/Venture Capital
firm that is also doing Early Stage VC deals could show up in firms involved in VC deals for Information Tech OR SaaS
a search where you checked “Venture Capital.” Check companies based in the U.K., since the beginning of 2016.
“Search For Primary Investor Type Only” to adjust for this. • Example: Identify the most active investors in the U.S. based
▪ Deal Criteria: Check “Completed” under deal status to only in the Mid-Atlantic or New England, that have completed
view completed transactions. Enter in a “Deal Date” to set a Buyouts or M&A transactions in FinTech since 2014.
range for when those deals were completed. • Example: Identify the Strategic/Corporate Acquirers with
▪ Deal Location: Refers to the location of the company that the most M&A transactions for companies in the B2B
was involved in the deal, not the investor. industry sector, in just the year 2015.
▪ Industry: Just like Investors, companies within the platform
are tagged to multiple industries. Checking off the “Select
Primary Industry Only” means you’ll be pulling companies
where their primary industry tag is the one you’ve selected.
▪ Running the Search: It would be relevant to sort the results
with the “Investments” column to see which investors have
made the most investments towards companies that match
the criteria.

BACK TO
CONTENTS
 ADVANCED SEARCHES

Advisors & Service Providers

This search takes a look at service providers that are actively involved in deals within a
industry and location.
How to conduct this search
▪ Use the “Advisors” search.
▪ Service Provider Information: You have the option of looking
up types of Service Providers from any location. Use the
“Search Primary Type Only” to filter for SPs where their
primary function is the type you selected.
▪ Search by Service Provided: “Hired for deal work (buy side)”
is selected by default, but you’ll also want to check “Hired
for General Services” too.
▪ Deal Information: This is where you can set parameters to
see the types of deals the service provider worked on and
what types of services they provided on that deal.
▪ Companies & Deals Search: You can also run a variation of
this search using the “Service Providers” tab within the
criteria screen of a “Companies & Deals” search.
Sample searches on the PitchBook Platform
Search for (service provider type) (service provider location) that has
been involved in (deal type) (deal location) since (date).
• Example: Identify the most active U.S. Investment banks
that have serviced the most U.S. M&A deals since 2014?
• Example: Identify the most active U.S. law firms have
serviced the most Later Stage VC deals in Europe since the
beginning of 2016?
Companies & Deals Search  Search for all deals where (service
provider name) was involved in (deal type) since (date)
• Example: Identify all Buyout deals since 2015 for companies
within the Manufacturing industry vertical, where
PricewaterhouseCoopers was a Service Provider on the Buy
Side or Sell Side of the Deal.

▪ Downloading Service Provider data from the “Deals Tab”:

The most relevant download template to use when
exporting this list into Excel is the “Service Providers on
Deal” template within the “Deals” tab of the search.

BACK TO
CONTENTS
 ADVANCED SEARCHES

Limited Partners
This search is used to create a list of limited partners by their commitment history,
preferences, and mandates.

How to conduct this search Sample searches on the PitchBook Platform

▪ Use the “Limited Partners” search.
▪ LP Types, LP Location: Select the types of LPs you want to
see and where they’re located.
▪ Mandates: You can select whether or not you want the
mandate to be recently announced (Current) or even look
up any previous mandates (Former). You can also select an
“Investment Focus” which helps to identify any preferences
of the fund manager’s investment behavior.
List all (limited partner types) in (location) that have committed to (fund
type) since (date)
• Example: Identify any Pension Funds located in California that
have made the most commitments to Buyout funds.
Which Limited Partners have committed to (fund name)?
• Example: Identify the Limited Partners that have made
commitments to the Orion Mine Finance Fund I.

▪ Commitments: Fill out the “Commitment Information” to Identify (Limited Partner Type) that currently has or previous had
see their actual commitment history. Same goes for the mandates in (mandate keyword)
Fund options in “Additional Options.”
• Example: Identify all Limited Partners with a current Mandate
▪ Commitment Preferences: It’s important to note that that requires them to commit to Energy-focused funds.
an LP’s stated preferences can differ greatly from
their actual commitment history.

▪ Running the Search: Add the “# of Affiliated Funds” and “#

of Affiliated Investors” column if you don’t have it.

▪ You can also view Limited Partner information on the

“Limited Partners” tab from a “Companies & Deals” search
or “Investors & Buyers” search.

BACK TO
CONTENTS
 ADVANCED SEARCHES

People
This type of search is used to target a person at a position level within a firm or a list of
professionals from multiple firms.
How to conduct this search Sample searches on the PitchBook Platform
▪ Use the “People” advanced search. Identify (position title) at (firm name)

▪ Firm Names: Type in the name of a specific firm or copy and • Example: Identify active Managing Directors from The
paste names from an existing list. Carlyle Group.

▪ Firm Types, Position Level, Location: Select a position level Identify (position) at (firm type) in (location)
to pull only those positions from the list of firms you’ve
inputted. • Example: Identify all female founders for founding partners
of U.S. VC firms
▪ You can also select a type of firm and the location where
those firms will be located. • Example: Identify the active CEOs of FinTech companies in
New York.
▪ For example, this would be essential if you wanted to
see all the CEOs of VC-Backed companies in
California.

▪ Position Title: Generally not recommended to use this

function because it will only pull professionals with titles
that have an EXACT match.

▪ Using the presets in “Position Levels” will pull in a

wider range of professionals with similar titles.

BACK TO
CONTENTS
 COMPS & ANALYSIS

Comparable Deals and

Precedent Transactions
This type of search aims to build a list of comparable transactions filtered by criteria such as
deal type, location, deal date, and industry/vertical.
How to conduct this search
▪ Use the “Companies & Deals” search.
▪ Deal Criteria: Check the “Completed” box under Deal Status
to only view completed transactions. Also set a “Deal Date”
for relevancy.
▪ You have the option of adding other deal information
such as Valuation and Deal Size.
Sample searches on the PitchBook Platform
Search for (deal type) of (industry type) companies in (location) since
(date).
• Example: Identify Buyout/LBO transactions between $100M
to $1B in size, of U.S Energy companies in the year 2013.
• Example: Identify Early Stage VC rounds between $5M to
$25M in size, since 2014 for Cybersecurity companies
based in the U.S. or Canada

Identify all (keyword) companies in (location) who have gone through

▪ Location: Check “Search HQ Only” to target the main office
(deal type) by since (date).
for companies and eliminate branches.
• Example: Identify global manufacturing companies related
▪ By selecting “any office location,” you could see the to yachts, that have gone through an M&A transaction
branch of a company that is HQ’d in another region. since 2013.

▪ Industry: Use key words separated by “OR” to include all • Example: Identify Angel and Seed financing rounds since
2012 for U.S. companies related to cancer research.
types of companies tagged with those keywords.

▪ Choosing the “Industry AND Vertical” will narrow

your results, screening companies that are only
tagged under both fields. While “Industry OR
Vertical” will broaden your search, pulling companies
BACK TO
tagged to either.
CONTENTS
 COMPS & ANALYSIS

Deal Multiples
The Analytics function allows the user to perform an in-depth market analysis by being able
to view aggregated data from a search through a customizable pivot table.
How to conduct this search
▪ Use the “Companies & Deals” search.
▪ Search Criteria:
▪ It is similar to the Comps & Precedent
Transactions search, except we’ll be focusing on
adding in a specific set of columns to look at the
deal multiples.
▪ From the “Deals” column of your search results,
click “Add Column” and locate the “Financials &
Multiples” section near the middle-right.
▪ Analytics Tab:
Sample searches on the PitchBook Platform
Identify the (deal multiple) for (location)(industry) companies involved
in (deal type) since (date).
• Example: Create a search to screen for Buyouts of U.S.
Healthcare companies since 2007 with a minimum deal size
of $100M. Add in columns related to Financials & Multiples
to identify which deals have the highest Valuation/Revenue.
Instead of viewing the individual multiple for each deal, you can use
the “Analytics” tab to combine all the deals into one table and view
the data as a whole.
• Example: Use the analytics tab and add in data points to
view the median Deal Size / EBITDA and Valuation / EBITDA
over time (years).

▪ Click on the grey“+” icon to add “Fields” which

you can click and drag to rearrange the data.

▪ Click on the blue “+” to add the data points you

want to review.

BACK TO
CONTENTS
 COMPS & ANALYSIS

Capital Invested
This search uses the Charts and Analytics function to view how much capital has been
invested over time by industry, deal type, etc.
How to conduct this search Sample searches on the PitchBook Platform
▪ Use the “Companies & Deals” search. How much capital has been invested in (industry) by (deal type) since
(date)? By (quarter/year)?
▪ Search Criteria: The purpose of building out this search is to
get a solid set of companies where we can do an analysis on • Example: How much capital has been invested in U.S.-based
the aggregated deal data. Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology companies, from
Venture Capital deals since 2010? Search Primary Industry
▪ Build out this search by looking for companies in a
only.
general location that have been through a selected
deal type within a set time frame. • Example: Edit the chart settings to find the median
deal size per year, broken down by Industry Code
▪ Charts Tab: You can select different types of charts and
break it down the information by various data points. • Example: Identify Early Stage Series A and B rounds for U.S.
Education software companies since 2011.
▪ In this case we want to choose the Capital Invested
from the drop-down. • Example: Use Analytics to find the capital invested
median and post valuation median for each year. Use
▪ Analytics Tab: You can also view the data in the “Analytics
the Series field to compare A and B rounds.
Tab,” where you have the ability to click and drag the
columns and rows to create your own customized table.

▪ Click on the “+” next to the light blue boxes to add

and remove fields.

BACK TO
CONTENTS
 COMPS & ANALYSIS

Exits – IPOs & Acquisitions

This search is used to screen for different types of exits of sponsor-backed companies.

How to conduct this search Sample searches on the PitchBook Platform

▪ Use the “Companies & Deals” search
▪ Exit / Liquidity:
▪ Check “Completed” under “Exit Status.”
Identify (backing type) companies from (location) (industry) involved in
(exit type) since (exit date) and (exit size).
• Example: Identify PE-backed exits of U.S. Healthcare
companies through a Secondary Buyout since 2015.

▪ Select the “Exit Type” to see results. • Example: Identify VC-backed exits of U.S. Information
Technology companies through a Strategic M&A deal since
▪ Under “Other Filters,” you have the options to see a 2014, with an exit size between $20M and $100M.
“PE-Backed exit” or “VC-backed exit.”
• Example: Identify all transactions where Battery Ventures
was the Seller and exited the company from an IPO.
▪ To look for a list of companies where their current
financing status matches the exit criteria you’ve set,
check off the “Only Search the Most Recent
Transaction.”

▪ Deal Criteria: It’s best not to fill out any of the fields within
this tab when also using the “Exit/Liquidity” tab. This will
create mixed results because the Deal Criteria is looking for
the acquirers while the Exit Criteria is looking at sellers.

▪ Running the Search: The results will be a list of companies

that have exited according to the criteria.

▪ One thing to note is that these companies could have

gone through other stages of financing after the exit.
BACK TO
CONTENTS
 COMPS & ANALYSIS

Valuations Charting & Analytics

This screen shows you how to view and sort the valuation data on a set of companies for any
round of financing.

How to conduct this search Sample searches on the PitchBook Platform

▪ Use the “Companies & Deals” search.
▪ Search Criteria:
▪ Like a Comps search, fill out the Deal Criteria, Deal
Type, Location, and Industry to target the companies
you want to see.
Screen for (industry) companies in (location) involved in (deal type)
within (date), and show their valuations.
• Example: Create a list of Early Stage VC deals for U.S.
FinTech companies since 2010. Sort by Company Name and
add in the columns to view the deal size, pre-money
valuation, and post valuation for each round.

▪ Running the Search:
▪ Companies Tab: Add the columns to see the Last
Financing Date and Last Financing Size, and Last
Financing Valuation.
▪ Deal Tab: Add the columns for “Deal Size,” “Pre-
Money Valuation, and “Post Valuation.”
▪ Charts, Analytics:
• Example: Utilize the “Charts” tab from the previous
example and edit the settings to view the median
Post Valuation over time.
• Example: Utilize the “Analytics” tab from the previous
example and edit the settings to view the median
Capital Invested and median Post Valuation over time.
But also add in a field to view the data for each
Series.

▪ Charts: You can use the Charts function to visualize

data like seeing how the median valuation changed
over time or differ between industry.

▪ Analytics: You can view valuations in a table format.

BACK TO
CONTENTS
 BENCHMARKING AND FUNDRAISING

Fundraising – Firms and Open

Funds
This search is used to identify firms that may be fundraising capital by looking for open funds.
How to conduct this search Sample searches on the PitchBook Platform
▪ Use the “Investors & Buyers” search. Identify (investor type) (investor location) that have (most likely
fundraising criteria).
▪ One way is to identify firms that have an open fund and or
firms that have not closed a fund in a long time and may be • Example: Identify Private Equity firms from New York that
ready to open a new fund soon. have not closed in the fund in the last 2 years OR have
opened a fund in the last 2 years.
▪ The other to search is by specifying the type of funds being
raised rather than the investor.

▪ Fundraising & IRR  Most Likely Fundraising: Identify (fund type) (fund location) that are (fund status) since (fund
date)
▪ “Investors that have not closed a fund”
• Example: Identify Venture Capital funds from California,
▪ “Investors that have not closed a fund or have an open
that have been open since the beginning of 2015 and are
fund.”
looking to raise between $100M-500M in fund size.
▪ Fund Criteria:

▪ It’s important to select a Fund Type and Fund Location to

help specify what kind of fund you’re looking for.

▪ Fund Status: Check “Open”. Represents whether or not the

fund is currently open and accepting capital commitments.

▪ Fund Date: The date entered here represents the time

frame for the Fund Status you chose.
BACK TO
CONTENTS
 BENCHMARKING AND FUNDRAISING

Funds by Investment Preference

This search is used to identify types of funds that have an investment preference or focus in
specific industries or locations.
How to conduct this search Sample searches on the PitchBook Platform
▪ Use the “Investors & Buyers” search Identify (fund type) (fund location) (fund size) with (stated preference)
▪ Fund Criteria: • Example: Identify U.S. Venture Capital funds that are
$100M-200M in size, and have a stated industry preference
▪ Usually, the most common criteria to select are: Fund
in Information Technology and geographic preference in
Type, Fund Location, Fund Status, Fund Size, and
Europe.
Fund Date.
Identify (location) (fund type) investing in (industry)-related
▪ Stated Preferences:
companies, since (date)
▪ These fields refer to a firm or fund’s stated
• Example: Identify U.S. Buyout funds that are at least $1
preference. This is based on the firm/fund’s
billion in size and have been closed since 2010, where the
description and on submitted survey responses.
funds have completed investments in companies within the
▪ Deal Industry: Healthcare industry

▪ If you prefer to see the actual investments that a • Example: From the Funds tab, add in the columns
fund has made, you can go to the “Deal Industry” and related to “Fund Investments” to see how active the
select the industries related to the companies that fund was in that industry.
were involved in the investment.

▪ Running the Search: the results will display a list of investors

associated with the funds set by the search criteria. You can
click over to the “funds tab” to see the actual list of funds.

▪ You can confirm your criteria by adding in columns

that include “Preferred” or “Stated Preferences”

BACK TO
CONTENTS
 BENCHMARKING AND FUNDRAISING

Fund Returns - Benchmarking

The purpose of this search is to create a custom peer group by identifying funds with the
same fund criteria, and then looking at their returns individually or as a group.

How to conduct this search Sample searches on the PitchBook Platform

▪ Use the “Investors & Buyers” search
▪ Fund Criteria: The main criteria to set are Fund Type, Fund
Size, Fund Location, and Vintage Year.
▪ Fund Status: Check “Closed.”
▪ Vintage Year: Always use one vintage year. Be sure it’s in
both the FROM and TO fields (i.e. 2013-2013).
▪ Running the Search:
▪ Funds tab: Use this tab to view details on each
individual fund. Add in columns to view the return
multiples for each individual fund.
Create a benchmarking peer group by identifying funds that are (fund
type) (fund location) (fund vintage year) (fund size).
• Example: Identify U.S. Buyout funds with a vintage year of
2012 and are $250M-$500M in size. View the individual
returns for each fund.
Use the Analytics tool to determine the median (return metric).
• Example: From the previous example, use the Analytics tab
to view the median IRR, TVPI, DPI, and RVPI for the group of
funds.

▪ Analytics tab: Use this to aggregate the funds into on

group and pull the median/mean from them.

▪ Use the blue “+” to add in the data points

related to fund returns.

BACK TO
CONTENTS
 BENCHMARKING AND FUNDRAISING

Fund Returns - Quartiles

This search is used to benchmark funds and discover the hurdle rates / quartiles for a peer
group of funds.

How to conduct this search Sample searches on the PitchBook Platform

▪ Use the “Investors & Buyers” search
▪ Fund Criteria: The main criteria to set are Fund Type, Fund
Size, Fund Location, and Vintage Year.
▪ Fund Status: Check “Closed.”
▪ Vintage Year: Always use one vintage year. Be sure it’s
in both the FROM and TO fields (i.e. 2013-2013).
▪ Deal Type/Industry: After creating a peer group using the
fund criteria, you can narrow it further by selecting the type
of industry or deal type where the fund has been active
Identify (vintage) (fund location) (fund type) that have invested in
(industry) through (deal type).
• Example: Identify 2010 U.S. Buyout funds involved in any
buyout deal for Manufacturing companies. Show the
returns for each individual fund.
• Example: From the custom benchmark created by the
previous example, use the analytics tab to see what the
hurdle rates for each quartile would be. Also, use the table
to break it down by Fund Size.

▪ Analytics Tab: Close out all of the field columns and rows.

▪ Click the “+” in the row of light blue boxes in the

table. Select only “IRR Median,” “IRR 25th,” and “IRR
75th.”

▪ For all funds within this kind of search, having an IRR

below the “IRR 25th” places them in the bottom
quartile, and having an IRR above “IRR 75th” places
them in the top quartile.

BACK TO
CONTENTS
 BENCHMARKING AND FUNDRAISING

Funds Charting & Analytics

This search aims to use the Charts function within the platform to visually analyze the trends
of funds, and uses the Analytics function to break down that information further.
How to conduct this search Sample searches on the PitchBook Platform
▪ Use the “Investors & Buyers” search. What is the (filter) for (location) (fund type) since (date)?
▪ Fund Criteria: Select from Fund Types, Fund • Example: What is the median fund size for U.S. growth
Location, Fund Vintage Year, Fund Size, and Fund funds since 2010?
Status.
• Example: How many European Venture Capital type funds
▪ This criteria is optional, since you can also have been raised/closed each year for the past 10 years?
chart funds from just the deal criteria.
• Example: Identify Co-Investment funds located in the use
▪ Deal Industry: This tab will filter for companies that that have even closed since 2010. Use the analytics table to
the fund has actually invested in while the find out the Fund Count per Fund Size bracket.
“Industry” field in the “Fund Criteria” tab will use
stated preferences.

▪ Running the Search: What you’ll see is a list of

investors that are managing funds that match the
criteria.

▪ Analytics Tab: With this tool, you can add and

remove fields to build out a customized view of the
aggregated data.

▪ Charts Tab: Within the “Funds Charting” function,

you can edit the chart settings to view the data in
different ways like a bar graph, pie chart, or stacked
bars.

BACK TO
CONTENTS
 BENCHMARKING AND FUNDRAISING

Funds - Capital Raised

This search is aimed at seeing how much capital has been raised for funds within a period of
time based on their type and location.
How to conduct this search Sample searches on the PitchBook Platform
▪ This search is similar to the “Funds Charting” search, but How much capital has been raised for (fund type) in (location) since
the examples will mostly be framed around using charts to (fund date)?
see how much capital has been raised.
• Example: How much capital has been raised for U.S. Buyout
▪ Use the “Investors & Buyers” search. and PE Growth-Expansion funds each year since 2008?
▪ Fund Criteria: Select from Fund Types, Fund Location, Fund • Example: How much capital was raised for Mezzanine funds
Vintage Year, Fund Size, and Fund Status. by each U.S. region since 2006?
▪ Deal Industry: This tab will filter for companies that the fund
has actually invested in while the “Industry” field in the
“Fund Criteria” tab will use stated preferences.

▪ Running the Search: What you’ll see is a list of investors that

are managing funds that match the criteria.

▪ Charts Tab: Within the “Funds Charting” function, you can

edit the chart settings to view the data in different ways like
a bar graph, pie chart, or stacked bars.

▪ Use the drop down menus on the right hand side to

break down that information by a specific data point.

BACK TO
CONTENTS
 BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Active Portfolio Search

This search looks for companies that match a set of search criteria and are still actively held
within a firm’s portfolio.
How to conduct this search
▪ Use the “Investors & Buyers” search.
▪ Investor Type: Select the type of investor whose portfolio
companies you want to find.
▪ Investor Name: Or you can add the names of the investors
yourself in the Key Fields section.
▪ Deal Criteria  Additional Options: Select “Only search for
active portfolio companies”
Sample searches on the PitchBook Platform
Identify all (portfolio companies) under (investor name) OR (investor
type).
• Example: Identify the active portfolio companies for the PE
firm, The Blackstone Group.
• Example: Create a list of Private Equity firms from the U.S.,
and sort them to identify who has the most companies in
their Active Portfolio

▪ Deal Size, Deal Type, Deal Location, and Deal Industry:

Identify (deal industry) (deal location) companies that have been
involved in (deal type) since (deal date), and are still in an active
▪ These are optional criteria that can set parameters on
portfolio.
what kind of transaction brought the target company
into the firm’s portfolio. • Example: Identify U.S. FinTech companies that have received
an Early Stage VC round since the beginning of 2016, are
▪ Running the Search: still in the active portfolio of a firm.

▪ Investors Tab: From this tab of the search results, you

can add in a column for “Active Portfolio” to see the
number of portfolio companies for a list of investors.

▪ Companies Tab: You will see sub-tabs for “All

Investments”, Active Portfolio Only, Former Portfolio
Only, and Add-ons Only.

BACK TO
CONTENTS
 BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Aging Portfolio Search

This search looks for companies that are active within the portfolio of a firm but have not
been through a transaction for an extended period of time.
How to conduct this search Sample searches on the PitchBook Platform
▪ Use the “Companies & Deals” search. Identify (location) (industry) companies held in the portfolio of
(investor type), acquired through (deal type) within (deal date) and
▪ Deal Criteria: Check off the “Only the most recent have not received financing since that transaction.
transaction” box. This ensures that the company’s most
recently financing was the one you specified. • Example: Identify U.S. Energy companies that are active in a
PE firm’s aging portfolio, acquired through buyouts and
▪ Set a “Deal Date” which represents the time period haven’t received financing since 2012.
in which the target company received their last
financing.

▪ Deal Types: Select the appropriate deal type that would

have caused the target company to be placed in a firm’s
portfolio. In this case it would be “Buyouts” for PE or a “VC
Round” for VC.

▪ Industry/Location Tabs: Select the desired industry you want

to see companies in and where they are located.

▪ Investors Tab: Check “In Portfolio / Active” under Portfolio

Status.

▪ Company Status Tab: Select “Privately Held (backing)” under

Ownership Status.

▪ Running the Search: From the Companies tab, the “Last

Financing Date/Size/Deal Type” indicates the most recent
transaction that the company has been through.

BACK TO
CONTENTS
 BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Identifying Co-Investors
This search focuses on identifying investors that have participated in similar deals or on the
same deal as another investor.
How to conduct this search
▪ Using the “Investors & Buyers” search
▪ Investor Types: The platform tags an investor to multiple
types depending on how they behave.
▪ For example, a PE firm that is also doing Early Stage
VC deals could show up in a search where you
checked “Venture Capital.” Check “Search For Primary
Investor Type Only” to adjust for this.
▪ Deal Criteria/Types/Location/Industry: Fill out these criteria
to search for the types of deals these investors were
involved in.
▪ Co-Investors from an Investor:
▪ Enter in the name of an investor in the search bar at
the top and select their profile.
▪ Click over to the “Co-Investors” tab to see a list Co-
Investors for all the deals in which they’ve been
involved.
Sample searches on the PitchBook Platform
Identify all of the investors involved in (deal type) for companies
in (industry) since (date).
• Example: Identify investors that have participated in an
Early Stage Series A round since 2016, for Mobile
companies based in the West Coast.
• Example: From here, go to the “Deals” tab, and
use the “Investors” column to identify all of the
investors that participated in each transaction.
• Export to Excel: You can download the list of deals
and view each investor in their own row by using
the “Deal Investors” download template.
Identify co-investors for (investor name).
• Example: Identify the most frequent co-investors for
ARCH Venture Partners by visiting the “Co-Investors”
tab found on their Investor Profile.

BACK TO
CONTENTS
 OTHER PLATFORM FEATURES

Saving a Search & Setting

Email Alerts
Saving a Search:
You are able to save any of the searches that you’ve created. This
is great for coming back later to make edits and run the search
again without having to start from scratch.
Steps:
1. Click the floppy disk icon at the top right of your results
screen or within the search criteria screen.
Why Save a Search?
Saving a search is useful because you don’t have to re-enter the
criteria every time you want to visit the results screen.
Saved Searches differ from Saved Lists because it is based off the
Search Criteria. So if any new entities match the criteria you
created, they will appear within the results every time you run the
search.

2. Name your search, and choose whether or not you want to

receive email alerts.

3. To find your list of saved searches, click “More” at the top
right of the platform and then click “Saved Searches” from the
drop down menu.
4. From this menu you can run, edit, share, delete, or manage
email alerts.
Email Alerts:
Setting an Alert means you will receive daily, weekly, or monthly
emails on a search or list whenever they are updated with new
investors, funds, deals, exits, management changes, or general
updates.

Steps:

1. You can set an alert from the results screen by click on the
bell symbol at the top right of your search or results screen.

2. You can also visit the “Saved Searches” under the “More”
option at the top right of your screen to edit your alert settings
for each search.

BACK TO
CONTENTS
 OTHER PLATFORM FEATURES
Saving a List & Using Lists in
a Search
Saving a List
This function is used to keep track of a list of entities that you got
after running a search.
A saved “List” is different from a “Saved Search.”
For example, if you saved a list of 10 companies, every time you
run the list again, you will see the same 10 companies.
Meanwhile, re-running a “saved search” will capture all entities
that match the criteria. If you saved the search for those 10
companies instead and ran it a week later, you might see 12
companies now because 2 new companies fit the search
criteria.
Steps:
1. Click the Save List above the columns on your results screen.
2. Name your list, and decide whether or not you want to
receive Email Alerts.
3. Find your saved list by clicking “Saved Searches” from the
“More” tab at the top-right of your screen.
4. From this menu you can run, edit, share, delete, or manage
BACK TO
CONTENTS emails for your list.
Using Lists in a Search
A saved list can be re-used within a new search in order add those
entities to a new search or to filter out entities with a new set of
parameters.
Steps:
1. Click on the “Lists” tab on the Search Criteria screen of a
“Companies & Deals” search or “Investors & Buyers” search.
2. Click the drop down menu and select the list you want to
use.
3. Fill out the rest of the criteria and run the search. The
parameters that were set will be applied to the list.
Example: Here is a search looking for Virtual Reality companies in
the U.S.
Example: I saved the list and named it “U.S. VR.” Then I ran a new
search using that list, but this time I was looking for companies
among that list that are based in California and have gone through
any kind of VC deal. This brought my original list of 137 companies
to 56.
 OTHER PLATFORM FEATURES

Importing a list of Companies or

Investors Into a Search
Importing a List of Entities Examples
You’re able to import your own list of entities (firms, funds, Here are screenshots of the “Names” field for the most relevant
companies) into a search, apply search criteria, and run the search types for that entity:
search to see that list within the platform.
- Importing Companies
Steps:
- Companies & Deals Search
1. Copy the list of entities from your document.
- Investors & Buyers Search
2. Find the “(Company/Firm) Name” bar within a the criteria
of an advanced search. - People Search

3. Click into the bar, paste that list, then click outside of the - Importing Investors
bar.
- Companies & Deals Search
4. The list of companies should now populate and will indicate
any errors in red. - Investors & Buyers Search

Sometimes a firm or company will go by a different name in - People Search

the platform compared to the name you pasted in. Click on
- Importing Funds
the red-highlighted firm and it will prompt you to confirm
which entity you want if there are other firms with similar - Investors & Buyers Search
naming conventions.
- Funds & IRR Search

BACK TO
CONTENTS
 OTHER PLATFORM FEATURES

Downloading & Exporting into

Excel
Downloading
After building a search and narrowing down your list to a relevant
set of data, it’s ready to be downloaded and exported into Excel
where you can start doing some extra manipulation that you can’t
do within the platform.
Steps:
1. From the results screen, click the “Download” option right
above the columns of data.
2. You have the option of downloading:
Search Result Columns: the current layout of the search.
All Columns: every single column of data available (found in
“Add Column”).
Frequently Asked Questions
What is considered a “download?”
A download is counted per entity or by the “rows” of data
from a results screen. A list of 100 companies will be 100
downloads, regardless of how many columns you have added
or removed.
How do I know how many downloads a search will use and how
many I have left?
After selecting the download function, you can browse
through the available templates and on the right-hand side it
will display “Downloads required” and “Downloads
remaining”

My Layout – downloading columns based off of the saved
layouts that you have.
Pitchbook Templates – preset templates that combine
relevant columns to create a targeted dataset.
What if I don’t have enough downloads for the data I want to
export?
You can use the “LiveChat” feature at the top right to speak
with a PitchBook representative who can assist you. Or you
can reach out to your PitchBook Customer Success Manager.

BACK TO
CONTENTS
 OTHER PLATFORM FEATURES

Layouts - Viewing
Search Results
Layouts Companies Tab
Company General Information
• A layout refers to the arrangement of columns when viewing Company Contact Information
search results. Last Financing Details
• Columns can be added or removed using the “Add Column” Public Company Financials
function.  Social & Web Presence
Deals Tab
• You can also click and drag the columns from side to side to
Deal General Information
create a customized and preferred view.
Deal Multiples
• After creating a preferred layout of columns, you can save it by Debt & Lenders
clicking on “Save As,” located to the right of “Add Column” Service Providers
• You can switch between Layouts to view the data in different VC Rounds
ways. This is especially useful when having layouts created for Investors Tab
different kinds of searches. Investor General Information
Investor Contact Information
• Layouts saved within a tab can be found in all Advanced
Searches that have them. So all of the layouts saved in the Last Investment Details
Deals tab of a “Companies & Deals” search will also appear in Fundraising
the Deals tab of an “Investors & Buyers” search. Total Investment History
Funds Tab
• Take a look at the recommended layouts and save any that
Fund General Information
appeal to you. You can use this as a starting point for creating
your own. Fund Returns
Fund Investments
Limited Partners Tab
LP Contact Information
LP Commitments to Funds
BACK TO
CONTENTS