THE START
Grata started in New York in 2016 to solve a problem nearly everyone in dealmaking complained about: private companies are hard to research. Unlike public firms, they don't publish their financials, so finding good acquisition targets often meant hours of manual searching. Founders Andrew Bocskocsky and Nevin Raj built an AI-powered search engine that gathered and organized information on private companies, eventually covering more than 12 million of them. For the bankers, private equity firms, and corporate buyers who needed deals, Grata turned a slow, manual hunt into a fast, precise search.
THE RISE
Over about six years, Grata raised roughly $35 million across three rounds and built one of the most complete private-company datasets available anywhere. Its real advantage wasn't flashy technology — it was hard-to-get data, made instantly searchable and connected to the tools dealmakers already used. That mix turned Grata into exactly the kind of asset a larger platform would want to own.
THE EXIT
In June 2025, Datasite — which runs the software behind roughly 14,000 deals a year — acquired Grata, and its controlling owner pledged $500 million to expand the combined intelligence business. The founders stayed on to run Grata inside Datasite. Within weeks, Datasite also bought Sourcescrub and BlueFlame, folding an entire layer of deal software into a single service.
WHY IT WORKED
- Data others couldn't easily copy.. Grata's edge was proprietary information, not just code.
- It saved real time.. It replaced hours of manual research with one search.
- It fit the workflow.. The data flowed straight into the systems buyers already ran.
THE TAKEAWAY
- The tool layer is consolidating.. In a matter of months, one platform absorbed Grata, BlueFlame, and Sourcescrub.
- The platform captures the value.. Grata's data is worth more inside Datasite's service than it ever was alone.
- Owning the customer wins.. Datasite already had the clients; it bought the tools to serve them better and earn more.