VC Database Comparison 2026: Which Investor List Is Worth Your Money?
Crunchbase vs PitchBook vs AngelList vs The Raise List. We compare them on what actually matters for founders doing cold outreach: email coverage, price, and whether you can use it without a subscription.
What founders actually need from an investor database
Before comparing tools, it helps to be clear on what you're trying to do. If you're raising a pre-seed or seed round, you need:
- A list of investor organisations filtered by geography, stage, and type
- Named contacts inside those organisations — partners, principals, associates
- Email addresses for those contacts (the hard part)
- Data you can filter and sort in a spreadsheet or CRM
The difference between the tools below is mostly where they sit on that list — and how much they charge for it.
Quick comparison table
| Tool | Email coverage | Pricing | One-time purchase | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Raise List | 100% on individuals | £29–£79 one-time | Yes | Founders doing cold outreach with email |
| Crunchbase | Limited on free; paid has enrichment | From $29/mo | No — subscription | Discovery and research, not outreach |
| PitchBook | Enrichment add-on only | From $1,875/yr | No — subscription | Institutional research; too expensive for seed |
| AngelList | Some profiles, no bulk export | Free to browse; paid for automation | Partial | Angels and micro-VCs; warm pipeline |
| Hunter.io | Per-search credits | From $49/mo | No — credits expire | Email enrichment, not investor discovery |
The Raise List
What it is
A one-time-purchase investor database containing 13,000+ fundraising organisations and 8,000+ individual contacts — every individual with a verified email address. Delivered as CSV + Excel. Permanent download link with free updates forever.
Email coverage
100% on individual contacts. Every named person in the file has an email address. The file also includes organisation-level contact emails where published (growing as enrichment runs).
Pricing
£29 for a regional pack (one geography), £79 for the full global list. No subscription. No per-seat fees. No credits to run out of.
What you get
Two linked files: organisations (fund name, type, country, website, LinkedIn, contact email where published) and individuals (name, title, email, LinkedIn, organisation link). Filter by geography and investor type in any spreadsheet tool.
Best for
Founders who need to build a cold outreach pipeline from scratch and want email addresses they can actually use — without burning enrichment credits or paying a monthly subscription.
✓ Best value for founders: one-time cost, 100% email coverage, permanent access.
Crunchbase
What it is
One of the most established startup data platforms. Covers companies, funding rounds, and investors. Has a large dataset but is primarily designed for company research rather than investor outreach.
Email coverage
Free tier has minimal contact data. Paid plans ($29+/mo) include email enrichment via a third-party integration. Not built-in — you'll still need to verify emails.
Pricing
Starts at $29/mo for the Pro plan. Enterprise plans run to $399+/mo. No one-time purchase option.
What you get
Broad company and funding data. Investor profiles exist but contact details require paid access and often redirect to third-party enrichment tools.
Best for
Tracking funding rounds, competitive research, and company discovery. Less suited to direct investor outreach without additional tools.
⚠ Subscription required. Email enrichment is an add-on, not core. Better for company data than investor contacts.
PitchBook
What it is
A professional-grade private market data platform owned by Morningstar. Used by institutional investors, investment banks, and corporate development teams.
Email coverage
Contact data is available but PitchBook is designed for desktop research, not bulk export. Email enrichment is an add-on service. Not a flat file you can take and use freely.
Pricing
Enterprise pricing. Plans start at approximately $1,875/year for individual users and scale up significantly for teams. Not accessible for early-stage founders.
Best for
Institutional fund managers, M&A teams, and corporate development. Far beyond what a pre-seed founder needs — or can afford.
✗ Not a viable option for founders. Enterprise pricing and designed for institutional use, not startup outreach.
AngelList
What it is
A platform connecting startups with investors, including a community of angels, micro-VCs, and seed funds. Has its own profile system for investors and allows you to follow specific investors.
Email coverage
Investor profiles exist but AngelList does not expose email addresses for bulk export. You can follow investors and get notified of their activity, but outreach requires finding emails elsewhere.
Pricing
Free to browse and follow investors. Paid features include recruiter tools and automation ($99+/mo). No one-time data purchase.
Best for
Finding angels and micro-VCs who are actively looking at startups. Good for warm outreach and pipeline tracking. Less useful for cold outreach without a separate email solution.
⚠ Strong for warm pipeline. Doesn't solve the email problem — you'll still need to find contact details elsewhere.
Hunter.io
What it is
An email finding tool. You give it a domain name and it returns email addresses found publicly online, along with a confidence score.
Email coverage
Good for individual email lookups on known domains. Credits expire and quality varies — addresses found may be generic info@ addresses rather than the right contact.
Pricing
From $49/mo for 100 searches. Credits don't roll over. At scale, this gets expensive fast — especially if you're building a list of 200+ investors.
Best for
Verifying or finding individual emails when you already know the firm. Not a discovery tool — you still need the list of firms and contacts first.
✗ A search tool, not a list. Expensive at scale. Use it to fill gaps, not to build a pipeline from scratch.
So which one should you use?
For a founder building a cold outreach pipeline from scratch, the choice comes down to two questions:
- Do you need email addresses for named contacts? If yes, look for a tool where this is built-in, not an add-on.
- Do you want to pay once or subscribe? If you're raising a round once and moving on, a one-time purchase gives you permanent access without ongoing cost.
The Raise List is built for exactly this use case: founders who need a complete investor list with real email addresses, want to own the data, and don't want to pay monthly subscriptions for information they'll use for a few months.
13,000+ organisations. 8,000+ emails. One download.
From £29. CSV + Excel. Free updates forever.
See pricing and get access →What to look for in any investor database
Whatever tool you choose, these are the criteria that matter:
- Email coverage must be built-in. If email addresses are an add-on, you're paying twice.
- One-time purchase beats subscription for a defined project like a raise. You don't need the data forever — but you do need it during the raise.
- Linked files beat flat lists. You want to go from a fund to the partners inside it in one lookup. Flat files make you do that work manually.
- Freshness matters. Investor teams change. Check when the data was last updated before buying.
- No per-seat fees. You want the data in your hands, not locked behind a platform login you lose if you stop paying.