Last updated: October 7, 2026
A deal sourcing database gives your team data and software to find private companies. A deal sourcing firm does the work after that: it builds the list, contacts the owners, qualifies them and books meetings on your calendar. If you have associates or BD staff whose job includes owner outreach, buy the database. If nobody on your team has that job, a database alone will not produce owner conversations.
Both show up when you search for "deal sourcing," but they sell different things, and you can buy one, the other, or both.
What do deal sourcing databases do?
Each description below comes from the vendor's own website. We left pricing out; ask each vendor for it.
Grata
Grata's homepage calls it "a private market intelligence platform" and promises to "Target 22M+ private companies that legacy databases miss". Its platform menu lists deal sourcing, seller intent, buyer list building, conferences and events, and pipeline management. CRM sync is built in, and teams can pull the data through an API, data warehouse sync or MCP. The users it names are private equity and growth equity, investment banking, corporate development, private credit, and consulting and advisory firms.
Ownership has changed. A Datasite press release posted on Grata's site, dated August 8, 2025, says Datasite "today announced its acquisition of Sourcescrub" and that "Sourcescrub's data and capabilities will be integrated into Grata, which Datasite acquired earlier this year." Datasite's homepage now lists Grata Intelligence among its products, and SourceScrub's homepage carries a banner reading "Sourcescrub and Grata are joining forces to deliver the market's most complete market intelligence platform".
SourceScrub
SourceScrub's homepage says it "continuously crawls the digital universe to find private companies, connects them with the 290,000-and-growing sources where they can be found, and puts them in an AI-powered platform to discover, track, and engage the best targets." The same page describes "17M companies woven together with 290,000 Sources and lists". Under the heading "On-Demand Data Operations", SourceScrub offers "Instant-on resources for list building, enrichment, and advice". Its site has separate pages for private equity, investment banking, corporate development and consulting teams.
Inven
Inven's homepage calls the product "the AI for M&A and consulting teams to analyze entire markets and create client-ready deliverables", backed by what it calls "verifiable data". Its deal sourcing feature reads "Build your target list at scale", which Inven says includes off-market companies. The homepage cites 28M+ companies and 1,000+ M&A and consulting firms using Inven. Inven also turns its data into market maps, strip profiles, decks and sheets, and it lists search funds and business brokers among the firm types it serves.
None of the three homepages offers to call owners on your behalf. Your team still runs the search, picks the targets and does the outreach. The software speeds up search and list work, and SourceScrub sells list-building help on top of it.
What does a deal sourcing firm do instead?
A done-for-you origination firm takes your buy box and returns booked owner meetings. Expect five things from one:
- A counted universe. The firm pulls state registries, licensing boards and franchise filings on top of the mainstream databases, resolves the results to one record per business, and puts the count in writing before outreach starts.
- Verified contacts. The firm checks each email and phone number before anyone dials.
- Named humans calling owners. Ask who makes the calls, where they sit, and whether the firm employs them.
- Qualification before the handoff. A caller confirms ownership, buy-box fit, a reason to talk now, and readiness. You get a file with each meeting: the owner and company, which parts of your buy box the company matches, why the owner is open to a conversation in their own words, and the full attempt record.
- The deal conversation stays yours. The callers do not discuss what the business might be worth or negotiate terms. They confirm fit and interest, then hand the owner to you.
Axia, our firm, works this way. Within fifteen business days of agreeing criteria, we hand you the counted universe and fix the number in writing, drawn from a published directory of 200+ named sources across 11 families. We check each email twice and each phone once, and every dial comes from a U.S.-based caller we selected and trained. From you we need the buy box: industries, geography, revenue range and what makes a company a fit. Our data sourcing page shows the directory.
Deal sourcing firm vs. database: side by side
| Deal sourcing database (Grata, SourceScrub, Inven) | Deal sourcing firm (done-for-you origination) | |
|---|---|---|
| What you get | Searchable company data, signals, market maps, CRM sync, API access | A target list built to your buy box, outreach to each owner, and qualified owner meetings on your calendar |
| Who does the work | Your associates or BD team search, build lists, email and call | The firm's team builds the list, sends, calls and qualifies |
| Time you spend | Hours each week on search, list cleanup, sequencing, dialing and follow-up | Setting the buy box, reviewing the universe, taking meetings |
| Data coverage | The vendor's dataset, broad across industries and geographies | Built per mandate. Ask whether the firm adds state registries and licensing boards to the mainstream databases |
| What it does not do | Contact owners for you | Replace thesis work, market mapping or diligence research |
| Best for | Firms with an in-house BD or origination team, banks building buyer lists, corp dev teams mapping markets | Searchers, independent sponsors, family offices and lean PE teams without someone whose job is outreach |
When is a database the right choice?
Buy a database when you already have people whose job is origination. A PE fund with two business development associates can get more from a seat than from handing outreach to an outside team, because those associates work the data every day, build owner relationships over years, and keep what they learn inside the firm. Databases also cover work an origination firm does not offer: market maps for an IC memo, buyer lists for a sell-side process, comps, and tracking thousands of companies over time.
If that describes your team, a database is likely the better buy, and you may never need an origination firm.
When is a deal sourcing firm the right choice?
A firm makes sense when your bottleneck is the outreach. Common signs:
- You have a list, from a database or your own research, and nobody to call it.
- Your buy box targets small, owner-operated companies that leave a thin digital footprint.
- You are weighing an in-house BDR hire and want an alternative without the ramp, management and turnover. Our in-house BDR vs. outsourced comparison covers that decision.
- You are a searcher or independent sponsor and your hours go to diligence and financing.
Can you use both?
Yes. One workable split:
- Use the database for thesis work: size the sector, map competitors, spot which niches have enough targets.
- Pick one or two sectors where you want owner conversations and your team lacks bandwidth.
- Hand those buy boxes to an origination firm to build the universe, run outreach and qualify.
- Log every meeting in the same CRM the database syncs to, so your pipeline sits in one place.
- After a full run, compare the channels on one question: which produced meetings with owners who fit and wanted to talk?
Before you hire a firm, read how to evaluate M&A deal origination services and our note on the hidden cost of buying B2B data lists.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a deal sourcing firm and a deal sourcing database?
A database such as Grata, SourceScrub or Inven gives your team searchable company data and workflow tools. A deal sourcing firm builds the target list, contacts the owners by email and phone, qualifies them, and books meetings on your calendar.
What is a good Grata alternative?
If you want another database, look at SourceScrub and Inven. Datasite owns both Grata and SourceScrub, and in August 2025 it announced that SourceScrub's data and capabilities would be integrated into Grata. If you want someone else to run the outreach, look at a done-for-you origination firm.
Is a deal sourcing database enough without an in-house BD team?
Not on its own. A database tells you which companies exist and fit. Someone still has to email and call each owner, follow up, and qualify the replies. Without a person whose job that is, the list sits in a spreadsheet.
What are the alternatives to hiring an in-house BDR for deal sourcing?
The main alternatives are a done-for-you origination firm, a pay-per-meeting appointment setter, a success-fee intermediary, or having an associate run outreach from a database. Each one moves the outreach work to a different person.
Can you use a deal sourcing database and a deal sourcing firm together?
Yes. One workable split puts the database on market mapping, thesis work and tracking, and the firm on owner outreach and qualification in one or two sectors your team cannot cover.
Sources
- Grata homepage: https://grata.com/
- Datasite press release on Grata's site, "Datasite to Acquire Sourcescrub", August 8, 2025: https://grata.com/resources/datasite-sourcescrub-acquisition
- Datasite homepage: https://www.datasite.com/
- SourceScrub homepage: https://www.sourcescrub.com/
- Inven homepage: https://www.inven.ai/
Have a buy box and no one to call it? Talk to a partner at Axia.