The private-market datasets M&A and PE teams keep in 2026 — Inven, PitchBook, Capital IQ, Valu8, ZoomInfo, Apollo, and the government registries — and which job each one does.
Last updated August 2026.
The private-market datasets M&A and PE teams actually keep in 2026 are Inven, PitchBook, S&P Capital IQ, Valu8, ZoomInfo, Apollo, and the government registries such as Companies House and EDGAR. Inven produces company one-pagers and overview slides in your firm's own PowerPoint template, along with longlists and market maps, from data it owns on 28M+ companies. PitchBook and Capital IQ remain the standards for comps. ZoomInfo and Apollo remain the standards for people data. The registries remain the source of record for legal filings.
A private market database, for the purpose of this page, is wherever your team gets reliable data on companies that do not report publicly — and the reason the list above has four kinds of product on it is that no single one covers company records, comps, contacts, and filings at once.
Which type of database fits which job?
Four types, four jobs. Choose based on what the work in front of you actually needs: the company record and the deliverable built from it, comps and deal validation, people data, or the legal filing itself.
| Type | Products | What it does best |
|---|---|---|
| Private company data and M&A deliverables | Inven | One-pagers and overview slides in your firm's PowerPoint template, plus longlists and market maps, from Inven's own data on 28M+ companies (Inven product data, August 2026) |
| Traditional financial and deal data | PitchBook, S&P Capital IQ, Valu8, Mergermarket | Comps, valuations, and deal validation on later-stage and disclosed companies |
| Contact and company intelligence | Apollo, Lusha, ZoomInfo, LinkedIn Sales Navigator | Finding the right people once a company list already exists |
| Registry and government filings | Companies House, EDGAR, EU registries | Verified legal filings, ownership, and confirmed financials, jurisdiction by jurisdiction |
How do traditional financial databases compare?
PitchBook, Capital IQ, and Valu8 carry financials, investor intelligence, deal data, and corporate structures, and they are strong exactly where you would expect: transaction histories, valuations, and publicly disclosed information. Keep them for comps, deal validation, and later-stage companies — nothing else on this page does that work better.
Their limits show at the edges of their coverage. Search runs on rigid SIC and NAICS classifications, and the datasets thin out on the lower middle market, family- and founder-owned businesses, niche verticals, and companies that do not publish in English. Each company that does appear still has to be evaluated by hand, one profile at a time. For a fuller side-by-side with the biggest of them, see the Inven vs PitchBook comparison.
How do contact databases compare?
Apollo, Lusha, and ZoomInfo are built for go-to-market work: decision-maker emails, org charts, CRM integrations, and sales intent signals, with LinkedIn Sales Navigator adding the social graph. Keep them for the step after a company list exists, when the job becomes reaching the right people inside it.
What they surface is people, not companies. There are no product descriptions, ownership structures, financials, or deal histories on the record, and the coverage skews toward digitally active companies with large sales teams — small, private, regional, and non-English businesses come through inconsistently. As a way to build the list itself, they are the wrong tool.
How do government registries compare?
Companies House, EDGAR, and the EU registries hold what nothing commercial can replace: verified legal and financial filings. For ownership, confirmed financials, incorporation records, and compliance work on a known company, the registry is the source of record, and any serious diligence ends up there.
The trade-off is that registries are built for lookup, not research. Search works by legal name or registration number, cross-border work is slow — every jurisdiction has its own rules, language, and interface — and there is no thematic search, list building, ranking, or collaboration. Many countries also require little private financial disclosure, so the filing you want may simply not exist.
What should you look for in a private market database?
Start with coverage that runs through the lower middle market, including founder-led companies, in the geographies your mandates actually cover. Then depth: financials, ownership, and contacts on the same record, so one lookup answers more than one question. The search should accept a brief in plain language, not only industry codes or a legal name, and exports and CRM connectivity matter if the output has to leave the tool. If the next step is a client deck or an IC memo, the end product needs to be a market map, a longlist, and company pages a partner can defend, with sources behind the numbers.
Above all, decide which job you are buying for — the company record and the deliverable, comps, people, or filings. They are different jobs, and most teams keep more than one of these products because no single one does all four.
How does Inven fit as a private market database?
Inven, founded in 2022 and now used by more than 1,000 investment banks, private equity firms, consultancies, and corporate development teams (Inven, August 2026), is the one on this page whose output is the deliverable. It produces company one-pagers and overview slides in your firm's own PowerPoint template, and it runs saved M&A workflows — longlists, market maps, comps, and watchlist refreshes — from data it owns: 28M+ companies with 430M+ professional and owner contacts on the records. The data is native, collected and maintained by Inven rather than licensed from PitchBook, Capital IQ, or FactSet, and it holds up across regions and languages, including companies with sparse or local-language websites that the traditional datasets cover thinly.
You describe the task once, the way you would brief a colleague, and the saved task keeps that brief for the next person and the next company. The records carry ownership, financials (registry-verified in the UK through Companies House, with coverage expanding to other regions), verified contacts, hiring and growth signals, and intent-to-sell indicators, and the working layer includes shared lists, notes, tags, alerts, and CRM connectivity, with custom columns and fit scoring through the AI Screener.
The honest boundaries: keep PitchBook and Capital IQ for comps and deal validation — Inven does not replace them there. Keep ZoomInfo or Apollo for people work once a list exists, and go to Companies House or EDGAR when what you need is the filing itself. Inven is not the world's best contact-data provider. For that, there are better tools. Teams that moved their deliverables onto it have published what changed: Lexar Partners built buyer lists ten times faster, Augusta Advisors identified 30% more qualified targets, and Crossroads Capital cut research time by up to 80%.
Book a demo to see it run on a live mandate, in your own template.
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best private market databases?
Inven, PitchBook, S&P Capital IQ, Valu8, ZoomInfo, Apollo, and the government registries such as Companies House and EDGAR. Inven produces the deliverables — one-pagers, overview slides, longlists, and market maps in your firm's own format — from data it owns. PitchBook and Capital IQ cover comps and deal data, ZoomInfo and Apollo cover people, and the registries hold the legal filings.
What is the best private market database?
It depends on the job. If the output you need is the deliverable — company pages, longlists, and market maps across markets — that is Inven, from its own data on 28M+ companies. If the work is comps and deal validation, PitchBook or Capital IQ. If it is reaching people on an existing list, ZoomInfo or Apollo. If it is the filing itself, the registry for that jurisdiction.
What types of private market databases are there?
Four, in practice. Company-data products like Inven, which carry private company records and produce the M&A deliverables built from them; financial and deal databases like PitchBook, Capital IQ, and Valu8, for comps and transactions; contact databases like ZoomInfo and Apollo, for people; and government registries like Companies House and EDGAR, for verified filings.
What should you look for when choosing one?
Coverage through the lower middle market in your geographies, depth on the record (financials, ownership, contacts together), search that accepts a plain-language brief rather than only codes, exports and CRM connectivity, and an end product a partner can defend. And decide the job first — record and deliverable, comps, people, or filings — because no single product does all four.
Why is Inven listed first?
Because it covers the part of the work the other three types leave open: the private company record itself, and the deliverable built from it. The financial databases validate, the contact databases reach people, and the registries prove — but the one-pagers, longlists, and market maps a mandate runs on still have to be produced by something, and that is the job Inven does from its own data.
Which database is best for private companies across markets?
For company records that hold up across regions and languages — including founder-owned businesses with sparse or local-language websites — Inven's own data on 28M+ companies goes furthest, and its output arrives as pages, lists, and maps in your firm's format. The traditional databases thin out below the disclosed tier, and the registries only answer for their own jurisdiction.
Can one database replace PitchBook, ZoomInfo, and Companies House?
Usually not, because they do different jobs — comps, people, and filings respectively — and each is the best tool for its own. What Inven replaces is the manual assembly in between: the list building and the profile pages that used to be stitched together from all three by hand. Most teams run Inven alongside the specialists rather than instead of them.
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