Academic plan
VCbacked for Academic Research
Access to VCbacked’s venture data for academic and research use, available to approved institutions. Researchers can search, filter and export venture-funded companies from a database of 41,450 venture-backed startups, with funding rounds, investors and founder names.
What the data covers
VCbacked tracks venture-backed startups and their funding. Each company record on the Academic plan includes:
- Company name, website, description and full description
- Industries and industry groups
- Headquarters location and region
- Latest funding round: type, amount and date
- Total funding raised
- Top investors for each company
- Founder names and roles
Search and filter by industry, funding stage, location, funding amount, funding date, investor, employee range and operating status, and open a page for any company. How the data is collected and kept current is described on our methodology page.
Research use cases
Entrepreneurship and finance research
Build samples of venture-funded companies by sector, stage, geography or funding date, and study how rounds, amounts and investors relate.
Venture capital studies
Look at which investors back which companies, how round sizes vary by stage and industry, and where new funding is concentrated.
Coursework
Give students a working dataset of real startups and their funding history for case studies, market sizing and class projects.
Theses and dissertations
Export filtered company lists with funding and investor fields as a starting point for empirical work, and cite the methodology.
What is included and what is not
The Academic plan includes the same search, filters and company pages as our Annual plan, plus CSV export of up to 2,500 rows per export. It is meant for studying companies and funding, not for outreach, so contact details are left out of search results, company pages and exports:
- Founder and company email addresses
- LinkedIn profile links
- API keys and the MCP server for AI assistants
How access works
- The institution is approved. A librarian, faculty member, student or staff member requests access with the form below. We review it and reply by email.
- Researchers sign up with their school email. Anyone with an email address at an approved institution, including department subdomains, signs up and confirms the address. The Academic plan turns on automatically and the account shows an “Academic plan” badge.
- Already have an account? If your school is not approved yet, you can also request it from inside the app with “Request academic access for your school”.
Approved institutions
- Princeton University
Not listed? Request access for your institution below.
Request access for your institution
For libraries, departments and individual researchers. No account is needed to send a request. We read every request and reply by email. You can also write to [email protected].
Questions
Who can use the VCbacked Academic plan?
Students, faculty, staff and librarians at an approved institution. Once an institution is approved, anyone who signs up with a confirmed email address at that institution, including department subdomains, has access.
What data does the Academic plan include?
Company names, websites and descriptions, industries, headquarters locations, funding round types, amounts and dates, total funding, top investors, and founder names and roles. Results can be filtered and exported to CSV, up to 2,500 rows per export.
Are contact details included?
No. Founder and company email addresses and LinkedIn profiles are not included in search results, company pages or exports on the Academic plan.
How does an institution get approved?
A librarian, faculty member, student or staff member submits the request form on this page, or a signed-in user with a university email requests access from inside the app. We review each request and reply by email.
Can we list VCbacked in a library research guide?
Yes. Link to this page so researchers can see what is covered and how access works. For questions, email [email protected].