Getting Started with PrivCo

Welcome to this tutorial on PrivCo!

This tutorial will show you:

• How to access PrivCo

• How to create an account

• What kind of information is available

• How to complete a search

To get started, from the Parrish Library homepage, select the List of Business Databases on the left side of the page.

Then select PrivCo.

Note: If you experience issues with this guide closing when you click on the database, try opening the guide in a separate window.

What kind of information is available?

PrivCo is a premier source for business and financial data on over 300,000 major, non-publicly traded corporations, including family owned, private equity owned, venture backed, and international unlisted companies.

Create Account

First time users will need to create an account by clicking on the “Create an account” link. Then, complete the sign up form using your purdue.edu email address.

Unable to sign in? Open PrivCo in a separate window and try signing in again.

Database Interface

Once you’ve signed in, you should see the PrivCo dashboard. At the top of the dashboard you can do a quick search by keyword, company or industry, view the top funded companies for the week, access the latest reports, and look at recent M&A deals.

On the left side of the screen you’ll find the navigation menu where you can set up an advanced search, view Watchlists, access Knowledge Bank—PrivCo’s financial terms dictionary, search for PrivCo’s financial insights newsletter, The Daily Stack, and return to the dashboard.

Basic Search

Use the search box at the top of the page to complete a basic search.

For example – type “Bechtel” into the search box and select “Bechtel Corporation” to view the company profile.

Company Profile

At the top of the page you’ll find the company name, whether the company is public or private, followed by the navigation tabs.

• The Overview tab provides a company overview which includes a brief description, contact information, subsidiaries, tracked revue, and keywords you can use to find similar companies.

• The Financials tab includes key company financials such as income statement and revenue.

• The Funding tab provides a list of investors.

• The Deals tab provides information on deals and investments.

• The Signal tab provides the PrivCo growth score, which compares the companies' revenue and investment data to similar companies in the industry.

Advanced Search

To set up an advanced search, click on the magnifying glass icon from the navigation menu on the left side of the screen.

The advanced search page allows you to search for companies, investors, fundings, or deals using the tabs at the top of the page. Clicking on the filters button opens the options menu which you can use to narrow your search.

For example, a company search allows you to search by location, industry, keyword, revenue, and more. You can even limit by ownership type whether you’re interested in private equity backed, venture capital backed, or subsidiaries.

Advanced Search Cont’d.

Example search –

• Select “Companies” tab at the top of the page.

• Under Industries, select “Consumer Durables."

• Then choose "Apparel, Footwear, & Accessories."

• Scroll down to the Ownership section, under PE-backed Firms, choose “Only Include.”

• Click “Search” to run the search.

Results

Search results can be sorted by table header. In our example, we can sort by Latest Revenue.

Watchlists

You can add companies to a Watchlist from the search page by selecting the checkbox next to the company or companies you want to include, then selecting “Add to watchlist” at the bottom of the page.

Please note: If you don’t have any Watchlists set up, you’ll need to create a new one before you can save your results.

To view your saved Watchlists, just click on the Watchlists icon from the navigation menu on the left side of the screen. From here you can quickly access the companies from your search.

What have you learned?

Now you know how to access PrivCo and how to create an account, what kind of information is available, and how to complete a search.

Thank you for using this tutorial!

If you have any questions or feedback, please contact parrlib@purdue.edu.