Why (I hope) generative AI will eat venture data platforms

This post originally appeared on LinkedIn

For years, PitchBook (or one of its lesser peers) has been a necessary evil in venture and private equity. We all use it. We all complain about it. The data is lagging, the UX is clunky, and it costs a fortune.

Some skeptics argue that generative AI can’t replace PitchBook because its data is sourced from a wide variety of news sources, filings and curated analyst coverage.

I think that’s exactly why it will be replaced.

The Moat is Eroding

Filings are text, not magic. PitchBook’s core inputs, Form D filings, S-1s, and press releases, are precisely the kind of repetitive, structured text that LLMs excel at parsing, and are improving at analyzing with context.

Real-time beats “best effort.” Coverage universes today are incomplete and lagging because they depend on analyst bandwidth. AI systems can scrape, normalize, and publish every filing or newswire as it happens.

Queries become conversations. Rigid filters give way to natural language. Instead of wrestling with outdated dropdowns, you’ll ask: “Show me fintech companies with ARR > $20M, founded after 2018, with Venture Firm X on the cap table.” The result: a dynamic dataset, not a static export.

From data to explanation. PitchBook hands you comps. AI can explain why one company is trading at 15x when peers are at 8x, pulling context from product mix, geography, and disclosed growth rates.

Lower cost, broader access. PitchBook is built for trained analysts inside large firms. AI-native tools will be cheaper, faster, and embedded across every productivity workflow. This democratizes access to the broadest set of users (and yes, I’m complaining as a smaller firm for whom the annual fee is daunting).

The Inevitable Shift

In the short run, we’ll probably see “PitchBook plus copilots” or something similar…this helps address the need for large archives of historical data (which admittedly are harder to replicate quickly or without partnerships). But over time, the whole model changes.

The real disruption won’t come from copying PitchBook’s database. It’ll come from reinventing how investors ask and answer questions about markets.

If you’re reading this and you’ve already found that Pitchbook killer, please DM me immediately. Too many of us in the industry are tired of overpaying for mediocre repackaging of our own collective data.

Until next time, thanks for listening to my rant!

Dan