Cognism

A UK-based B2B sales intelligence SaaS platform providing contact data (emails, phone-verified mobile numbers), company firmographics, technographics, buyer intent signals, and CRM enrichment. Marketed as the compliance-first data provider for EMEA outbound; also covers North America and global markets. Operates a web app (Prospector), Chrome extension, CRM enrichment module, and a Data-as-a-Service delivery channel.

Contact and company search across 440M+ contacts and 100M+ companies with advanced filters (title, company size, industry, revenue, technology stack, hiring signals, funding events). Diamond Data: phone-verified mobile numbers manually verified by Cognism's research team, claiming ~87% accuracy and ~3x industry-average connect rates. CRM Enrichment for bulk record updates. Bombora-powered Company Surge intent data (12 topics included in Pro; additional topics sold as add-ons). Sales Companion with Cortex AI features (Smart Personas, AI Search, Research by Cortex) for pre-call research. Cognism Engage (lightweight sequencing, included in Pro). Chrome extension overlaying LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, corporate websites, Salesforce, and Outreach. Automatic DNC/TPS suppression across 15+ global Do Not Call registries.

Cortex AI layer (launched 2025) includes Smart Personas for ICP targeting, AI Search for natural-language prospecting queries, and Research by Cortex for automated pre-call account research. Bombora intent data integration for in-market signal scoring. REST API covers Search, Enrich, and Redeem endpoints; documentation available at developers.cognism.com; API responses may occasionally diverge from Prospector UI results. No first-party native MCP server — Cognism does not publish an official MCP server. Third-party MCP access is available through Zapier MCP (which wraps Cognism Prospector actions and connects to Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT, consuming 2 Zapier tasks per call) and viaSocket MCP. API access (Enrichment API, Prospector Pro API) is tier-gated: Enrichment API available on Plus-equivalent tiers; Prospector Pro API on higher tiers. Bulk export and API calls consume credits under fair-use caps.

Entirely quote-based; no public list prices. Structure is annual platform fee plus per-user license across two tiers. Standard (formerly Platinum/Grow): approximately $15,000 platform fee + ~$1,500/user/year. Pro (formerly Diamond/Elevate): approximately $25,000 platform fee + ~$2,500/user/year. As a reference, third-party procurement data (Vendr, Salesmotion) reports a 5-user Standard configuration at roughly $22,500/year and Pro at roughly $37,500/year at list price, with negotiated discounts of 28–52% commonly achieved. Enterprise contracts (200–1,000+ employees) reportedly range from $15,100 to $103,000/year depending on headcount and tier. Add-on costs include: onboarding fees ($500–$1,500), intent topic add-ons beyond the included 12 ($200–$400/topic/year, or $1,600–$6,000/year for 8–15 topics), Diamonds-on-Demand verification credits, and API access on certain tiers. Contracts are annual with auto-renewal (60-day written notice required to cancel); 10–15% renewal price increases are common unless a multi-year rate lock is negotiated. No self-serve signup or free tier; trial is a sample of 25 ICP-matched leads via a sales demo.

Native CRM integrations: Salesforce (Lightning Data partner), HubSpot, Pipedrive, Microsoft Dynamics. Native sales engagement: Salesloft, Outreach. Data warehouse / DaaS delivery: Snowflake, AWS S3, Google Cloud, Databricks, SFTP. Chrome extension overlays on LinkedIn and Sales Navigator. Zapier connector available. REST API for custom integrations. No charge for standard integrations per Cognism's own documentation. Integration breadth is narrower than ZoomInfo's 100+ partner marketplace.

ISO 27001 and ISO 27701 certified; SOC 2 Type II attested (security and availability). GDPR compliant: data collected under legitimate interest (Section 6.1(f) GDPR), Article 14 notifications sent to data subjects, dedicated DSAR team, DPA available. CCPA compliant; registered as a Data Broker with California ICO. Registered with the UK ICO. Database scrubbed against 15+ global DNC and TPS registries. Data encrypted at rest (AES-256) and in transit (TLS 1.2/1.3); AWS KMS for key management. Data retained primarily within the EEA; transfers outside EEA use SCCs with minimization and anonymization. Breach notification within 72 hours. Annual employee security and GDPR training. Customer data is logically segregated; backups automated with quarterly recovery testing (24-hour RPO/RTO).

Founded 2015 in London by James Isilay (CEO at founding, now reportedly transitioned — Dominic Allon listed as current CEO per Tracxn) and Stjepan Buljat (Co-Founder, engineering background from University of Zagreb). Isilay previously worked as a quantitative trader at UBS Investment Bank and energy companies. HQ: London, UK; additional offices in New York, Skopje (Macedonia), and Zadar (Croatia). ~455–467 employees as of early 2026. Total funding: approximately $130M–$163M across 8–9 rounds (sources vary; PitchBook cites $163M). Series C of $87.5M raised January 2022, led by Viking Global Investors (a ~$50B AUM US hedge fund); other investors include AXA Venture Partners, DST Global, Blue Cloud Ventures, Swisscom Ventures, DN Capital, Piton Capital, Cherry Ventures. Acquired Kaspr (LinkedIn-focused European prospecting tool) in 2022 as part of Series C. Acquired Mailtastic (email signature marketing) in 2020. Reported ARR of ~$83M and valuation of ~$436M as of 2022 Series C; remains private.

Weak. Cognism is built for B2B sales and marketing teams running outbound prospecting at volume — SDRs cold-calling into enterprise accounts. A VC/GE firm like a firm does not run that motion. Sensitivity is Medium because outbound queries and prospect lists touch some firm context (target company universe, sector focus), but core deal data and LP information do not flow through the tool. The EMEA phone-verified data is irrelevant to a firm sourcing US advanced technology deals. The compliance infrastructure is strong but over-engineered for a small investment team. Limited AI-native workflow value: no native MCP server, API access is tier-gated, and the Cortex AI features are oriented toward sales personas rather than investment research. Apollo.io or Clay would deliver equivalent or better contact enrichment at lower cost and with stronger self-serve API access for a firm this size.

No native MCP server; third-party MCP access only via Zapier or viaSocket wrappers, adding latency and task costs. Pricing is opaque, requires a sales demo, and carries a high floor (~$15K+ platform fee) making it expensive for small teams. US and Asia-Pacific data coverage meaningfully weaker than EMEA; competitors like ZoomInfo or Apollo have broader US depth. API responses can diverge from Prospector UI results. 'Unlimited' data access subject to fair-use cap (~2,000 records/user/month); bulk exports and API calls consume credits. No self-serve trial. Auto-renewal clauses with 60-day cancellation window and 10–15% annual price escalation are recurring friction points. Cognism Engage sequencing is a starter tool, not a full outbound engagement platform.