Crunchbase is a database providing information on private and public companies. Its content is compiled through a combination of live company data, artificial intelligence, and market activity contributed by a user base of over 80 million.
History
Founded in 2007 by Michael Arrington, Crunchbase was originally established as a supplementary database to track the various startups featured in articles on TechCrunch. In September 2010, the platform was acquired by AOL as part of its broader acquisition of the TechCrunch network.[1]
In November 2013, AOL entered into a dispute with startup Pro Populi over the company's use of the entire Crunchbase dataset in apps that Pro Populi developed, despite having distributed the data under the Creative Commons CC-BY attribution license. Pro Populi was represented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.[2] AOL eventually conceded that Pro Populi could continue to use the dataset but adopted the CC BY-NC license for future revisions.[3]