To track new funding rounds in one sector, most founders and VCs pair saved-search alerts in a startup database (Crunchbase Pro, Dealroom or PitchBook) with a news feed on the sector. Without a seat, cheaper routes help: SEC Form D filings for US raises, investors' and companies' own pages, keyword alerts, and a funding-rounds feed sent as a weekly email.
This guide is for angels, small-fund analysts and founders who want to know who raised, how much and from whom, without an enterprise data seat. Full disclosure: Avos is our product. Facts about the other tools come from their own pages, linked below. Nothing here is investment advice.
What are the main ways to track new funding rounds?
Four kinds of route: databases with saved-search alerts, public filings, the investors' and companies' own pages, and news-based alerts and feeds. Only databases add history and screening.
Checked on 6 November 2026 against Crunchbase's pricing page and help articles on free vs paid accounts and alerts, PitchBook's pricing and alerts help, Dealroom's pricing, saved searches and daily notifications, Tracxn's pricing, CB Insights' pricing, the SEC's pages on filing a Form D, RSS feeds and full-text search, and Google Alerts.
| Option | What you get | How it reaches you | Cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crunchbase free account | Company profiles; activity alerts for one list only (My First List); up to 5 results per search | Email, for that one list | Free | Looking up a company now and then |
| Crunchbase Pro | Up to 1,000 results per search; up to 100 saved searches and 100 lists, with alerts | Email alerts, with types and frequency you set | Paid; monthly or annual, see its pricing page | Screening a sector on a small budget |
| PitchBook | Alerts on saved searches, lists and market maps for companies, deals, investors, funds and people | Email: daily (weekdays), weekly or monthly | Pricing on request, by seats and firm type | Funds that need deep deal data |
| Dealroom | Saved searches that update you as new companies match | Notification center; a daily email per Dealroom's blog | From €250 per seat per month, billed annually; 3-day free trial | Teams researching startup ecosystems |
| SEC Form D (EDGAR) | Notices from US companies selling securities under Rule 504 or 506 of Regulation D, due within 15 days after the first sale | EDGAR's Latest Filings search, filtered by form type, as an RSS feed | Free | US raises, announced or not |
| Investors' and companies' own pages | Portfolio and news pages, press releases, partners' posts on LinkedIn and X | RSS where the site has a feed; following the accounts | Free | The firms and companies you watch most |
| Keyword alerts (Google Alerts) | New search results for phrases like "Series A" plus your sector | Email, as it happens, at most daily or weekly | Free | A free, noisy baseline |
| Avos News | Announced rounds for a sector, company or investor, each with amount, stage, investors and sources, filtered in plain words | A scheduled briefing email, or an alert as it happens, daily or weekly | Free Starter plan; credits per run that finds rounds, see pricing | Weekly deal flow without a database seat |
What alerts does Crunchbase's free account really include?
Fewer than most people assume. Crunchbase's comparison table limits Company Activity Alerts on the free account to one list, the default My First List, and caps search results at 5 per search. It can tell you when a company you saved does something, but it can't screen a sector for new rounds. Pro adds alerts on saved searches and lists, with the email types and frequency set per search. If you mostly follow companies you already know, the free list alert can be enough; for complete coverage of a sector, a database is the dependable route.
Do you need PitchBook, Dealroom or another database?
Only if you need what sits around the round: screening by stage, geography and investor, a pipeline, valuations and past rounds. PitchBook prices by seats and type of firm, on request. Tracxn has a free Lite plan with usage limits and lists alerts among its premium features; CB Insights offers watchlists and alerts, with pricing on request.
Can public filings and primary sources fill the gap?
For US companies, partly. A company selling securities under Rule 504 or 506 of Regulation D, or under Section 4(a)(5), must file a Form D notice on the SEC's EDGAR system within 15 days after the first sale. The SEC's Latest Filings search can be filtered by form type, and the SEC says you can subscribe to its results as an RSS feed: a free stream of new Form D notices. EDGAR full-text search, covering filings since 2001, suits looking up a name; its FAQ describes no alerts.
Form D has limits. Not every round files one: only offerings that rely on those exemptions do. The deadline follows the first sale, not the press release, so a notice can land before or after the news, or for a round nobody announced. And the feed lists every filer, so you pick out your sector yourself.
The other free primary source is the people involved. Many funds post new investments on their portfolio or news pages, partners announce them on LinkedIn and X, and startups publish press releases on their newsrooms and through press-release wires. Follow the few that matter most, by RSS where a site has a feed.
Can a news search and a daily digest do the job?
Partly, and for free. Google Alerts emails you new results for a phrase such as "raises" "Series A" climate tech, as it happens, daily or weekly. The trouble is matching: every article with the words comes back, including opinion pieces and the same announcement from ten outlets, with no amount, stage or investor to sort by. Avos News vs Google Alerts covers where a keyword alert is still right.
How complete is each route?
No route catches everything. Databases are usually the most complete: they add their own research to public announcements and can include rounds that were never announced, where they have them. Form D catches US raises that file a notice, announced or not, and misses the rest. Investors' and companies' own pages are complete for the firms you follow and silent on everyone else. News-based alerts and feeds, Avos's included, see announced rounds only, and can miss quiet or regional ones.
How do you track funding rounds in a sector with Avos?
Avos has a Funding rounds feed: startup and venture rounds as they are announced, each with its amount, stage, investors and sources. Read it as a section of a briefing, or have an alert watch it. The feed has one field, a sector or a name.
- Describe the briefing. Tell the AI editor: "A weekly briefing on climate tech funding, Series A and later, plus news on these three investors." Or start from the Tech, AI & Business template.
- Add the Funding rounds feed. In a News section's Feeds settings, add one feed per sector ("climate tech") or per company or investor name. Each counts toward the section's feed limit.
- Write the filter. The feed has no stage or amount settings, so write what to keep in the section's Filters: "Series A and later" or "only rounds over $10M".
- Add the primary sources. Investors' X accounts, and the RSS feeds of their news pages or a company's newsroom. Track your industry and competitors lays out a full edition.
- Pick a schedule. Daily, on the weekdays you choose, or monthly, in your timezone. For a weekly round-up, set the section's timeframe to the last 7 days.
- Add an alert for what can't wait. A news alert can watch the same feed for "funding rounds over $50M" or "a competitor raises money" and email you as it happens, daily or weekly. Preview what it would have caught first.
Worth knowing: the feed uses credits only when it finds rounds. In an alert, funding feeds are checked less often than plain news feeds, within your plan's schedule (see pricing). A briefing is designed to skip rounds it ran in recent issues, and co-investors get it if you add their addresses to the newsletter's audience.
What isn't Avos, and when is a database the better choice?
Avos is not a private-markets database. It tells you about new rounds as they are announced; it doesn't keep what a database keeps:
- No company history. No company profiles, past rounds, cap tables or valuations.
- No structured screening. Stage and amount are plain-language filters, not a screener you can sort and export.
- Announced rounds only. Rounds that are never announced won't appear.
- No pipeline tools. No shared lists, deal stages or CRM sync; Avos delivers by email and on the web.
For diligence, valuation work or a target list, pay for the database. If you want awareness of announced rounds rather than complete coverage, a funding feed in a weekly email may be enough, especially next to a free Crunchbase account for looking up the companies it surfaces and a Form D feed for US raises.
FAQ
Is there a free way to track startup funding rounds?
Yes, with gaps. A Form D feed from EDGAR is free for US raises that file, investors' and companies' own pages are free, Crunchbase's free account alerts on one list of companies, and Google Alerts matches keywords. Avos's Starter plan is free and includes the Funding rounds feed, which uses credits when it finds rounds; see pricing.
Can I filter funding rounds by stage or amount in Avos?
Yes, in plain words. The feed itself has no stage or amount settings; write what you want in the section's Filters or in an alert's condition, and AI checks each round against it.
Can Avos replace PitchBook or Crunchbase?
No. Avos reports new announced rounds, with no company profiles, history, cap tables, valuations or screener. Use it to see what's new and a database to research it.
How quickly will I hear about a new round?
A briefing carries the rounds announced since the last edition. An alert checks on your plan's schedule, funding feeds less often than news, and emails you after a match. If minutes matter, Avos is the wrong tool.