Knowledge Base

Finding information on private companies is challenging because there are few regulations and reporting requirements.

Private Company Profiles

Below are some recommendations of where to get information on private companies. This list is not exhaustive, so contact us if you have questions.

U.S. & International Private Companies

• Capital IQ – see Capital IQ access help
• D&B Hoovers
• Orbis
• PrivCo – US only – see PrivCo access help

Startups

• PitchBook – see PitchBook access help
• CB Insights – see CB Insights access help
• PrivCo – US only – see PrivCo access help
• Tracxn – see Tracxn access help

U.S. Small Businesses

• Data Axle Reference Solutions – use the U.S. Businesses database
• D&B Hoovers

Historical Profiles

• Nexis Uni –  on the home page under Dossier click on Find a Company. After selecting a company's profile, in the left navigation go to Company Information > Company History. Formerly called LexisNexis Corporate Affiliations.

Profiles linked to News and Legal Activities

• Nexis Uni –on the home page under Dossier click on Find a Company. After selecting a company's profile, in the left navigation go to News or Legal.
• Orbis

You may also want to scour news sources or talk to people in your network.

Subsidiaries

Many of the above resources include information about subsidiaries of both public and private companies. Keep in mind that the information companies have to and choose to release about their subsidiaries varies, making it hard to compare subsidiaries and/or find detailed information and financials.

For example, Google is a private subsidiary of the public company Alphabet. While Alphabet does disclose detailed information about Google's financials, it does not do that for all of its subsidiaries.

How can you tell if a company is a subsidiary?

• Many online resources (such as the Google Knowledge Panel (image) and Wikipedia summary box (image) will provide details about the company's structure and whether it is a parent or subsidiary.
• Most of our databases that include company profiles will include a label or field that will indicate whether the company is a parent or subsidiary (image from D&B Hoovers).