Crunchbase

Go to crunchbase.com and log in to your account. Navigate to the API section (check your account settings or visit data.crunchbase.com). Crunchbase removed its free API tier in 2025, so you will need to subscribe to a paid plan before you can generate an API key. As of mid-2026, the Basic plan (verify current price on their website) gives access to a limited set of endpoints — approximately 3 entity-type lookups. The Pro plan gives broader access including the organization search endpoint (POST /searches/organizations), which is essential for building a search-driven app. If you subscribe to Basic and try to call the search endpoint, you will get a 403 response that may look like an authentication failure but is actually an entitlement error — your tier does not include that endpoint. After subscribing, go to your account settings and find the API section. Copy your user_key — it will be a long alphanumeric string. Test it immediately: paste https://api.crunchbase.com/api/v4/entities/organizations/airbnb?user_key=YOUR_KEY into your browser. You should receive a JSON object with Airbnb's Crunchbase organization data. A 401 means your key is wrong. A 403 means the endpoint is not in your plan. An empty or error response means the key has not activated yet (Crunchbase key activation can take a few minutes after subscription). Do not proceed to the next step until this test returns valid JSON.

1# Test your Crunchbase user_key (replace YOUR_KEY)
2curl 'https://api.crunchbase.com/api/v4/entities/organizations/airbnb?user_key=YOUR_KEY'
3
4# Expected: JSON object with organization data including name, short_description, funding_total
5# 401: invalid key
6# 403: endpoint not in your plan tier

The Crunchbase user_key is attached to your paid billing account. If someone extracts it from a compiled FlutterFlow app, they can query Crunchbase against your plan's quota without paying. For any app you distribute, even to a small team, the user_key must live in a Firebase Cloud Function proxy — not in the FlutterFlow API Call configuration that compiles into the app binary. Deploy the Cloud Function below to your Firebase project. It accepts two types of requests: entity lookups (GET-style, passing a permalink and entity type) and organization searches (POST-style, passing a query body). The function appends the user_key to Crunchbase API requests server-side. Set the user_key as Firebase environment config (never hardcode it in the function file). Once deployed, your Cloud Function URL becomes the base URL for FlutterFlow — the user_key is completely hidden from the client app.

1// Firebase Cloud Function: functions/index.js
2const functions = require('firebase-functions');
3const axios = require('axios');
4
5const USER_KEY = functions.config().crunchbase.user_key;
6const CB_BASE = 'https://api.crunchbase.com/api/v4';
7
8exports.crunchbaseProxy = functions.https.onRequest(async (req, res) => {
9  res.set('Access-Control-Allow-Origin', '*');
10  if (req.method === 'OPTIONS') {
11    res.set('Access-Control-Allow-Methods', 'GET, POST');
12    res.set('Access-Control-Allow-Headers', 'Content-Type');
13    return res.status(204).send('');
14  }
15
16  const { action, permalink, entity_type, query_body } = req.body || {};
17
18  try {
19    if (action === 'get_entity') {
20      // GET /entities/{entity_type}/{permalink}
21      const type = entity_type || 'organizations';
22      const fields = 'short_description,funding_total,num_funding_rounds,last_funding_type,last_funding_at,founded_on,num_employees_enum,homepage_url,linkedin_url';
23      const r = await axios.get(
24        `${CB_BASE}/entities/${type}/${permalink}?user_key=${USER_KEY}&field_ids=${fields}`
25      );
26      return res.json(r.data);
27    }
28
29    if (action === 'search_organizations') {
30      // POST /searches/organizations
31      const body = query_body || { field_ids: ['name', 'short_description', 'funding_total', 'last_funding_type', 'founded_on'], limit: 10 };
32      const r = await axios.post(
33        `${CB_BASE}/searches/organizations?user_key=${USER_KEY}`,
34        body,
35        { headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' } }
36      );
37      return res.json(r.data);
38    }
39
40    return res.status(400).json({ error: 'Unknown action. Use get_entity or search_organizations.' });
41  } catch (err) {
42    const status = err.response?.status || 500;
43    return res.status(status).json({ error: err.message, detail: err.response?.data });
44  }
45});
46
47// Setup:
48// firebase functions:config:set crunchbase.user_key="YOUR_USER_KEY"
49// firebase deploy --only functions

Open your FlutterFlow project. Click API Calls in the left navigation. Click + Add → Create API Group. Name it CrunchbaseProxy and set the Base URL to your Firebase Cloud Function URL. Add a Content-Type: application/json header to the group. Add two API Calls inside the group: API Call 1 — GetOrganization: Method POST (the proxy uses POST for both actions), endpoint blank. Body: { "action": "get_entity", "permalink": "{{permalink}}", "entity_type": "organizations" }. Add variable: permalink (String). Test with permalink set to 'stripe'. Click Generate JSON Paths. Key paths in the response: $.properties.identifier.value (organization name), $.properties.short_description, $.properties.funding_total.value_usd, $.properties.last_funding_type, $.properties.last_funding_at.value, $.properties.num_funding_rounds, $.properties.founded_on.value, $.properties.num_employees_enum. API Call 2 — SearchOrganizations: Method POST, endpoint blank. Body: { "action": "search_organizations", "query_body": { "field_ids": ["name", "short_description", "funding_total", "last_funding_type", "founded_on", "num_employees_enum"], "query": [{ "type": "predicate", "field_id": "facet_ids", "operator_id": "includes", "values": ["company"] }], "order": [{ "field_id": "funding_total", "sort": "desc", "nulls": "last" }], "limit": {{limit}}, "after_id": "{{after_id}}" } }. Add variables: limit (Integer, default 10), after_id (String, default ''). Note: the after_id is Crunchbase's cursor for pagination — leave it empty for the first page, then pass the uuid from the last result to get the next page.

1{
2  "group": "CrunchbaseProxy",
3  "api_call_1": {
4    "name": "GetOrganization",
5    "method": "POST",
6    "body": {
7      "action": "get_entity",
8      "permalink": "{{permalink}}",
9      "entity_type": "organizations"
10    },
11    "variables": [
12      { "name": "permalink", "type": "String" }
13    ],
14    "response_paths": [
15      "$.properties.identifier.value",
16      "$.properties.short_description",
17      "$.properties.funding_total.value_usd",
18      "$.properties.last_funding_type",
19      "$.properties.last_funding_at.value",
20      "$.properties.num_funding_rounds",
21      "$.properties.founded_on.value",
22      "$.properties.num_employees_enum"
23    ]
24  },
25  "api_call_2": {
26    "name": "SearchOrganizations",
27    "method": "POST",
28    "body": {
29      "action": "search_organizations",
30      "query_body": {
31        "field_ids": ["name", "short_description", "funding_total", "last_funding_type", "founded_on"],
32        "limit": "{{limit}}",
33        "after_id": "{{after_id}}"
34      }
35    },
36    "variables": [
37      { "name": "limit", "type": "Integer", "default": 10 },
38      { "name": "after_id", "type": "String", "default": "" }
39    ]
40  }
41}

Open your search screen in FlutterFlow. Add a Column containing a SearchBar TextField at the top, a Button labeled 'Search Crunchbase', and a ListView below. Add Page State variables: searchQuery (String), results (list type), lastUUID (String, default ''), and selectedOrg (dynamic, for the detail screen). Wire the Search button's action flow to: 1) Set searchQuery Page State to the TextField value, 2) Call SearchOrganizations with a query_body that includes a name predicate filter using the search term (update the proxy function to pass the query through to Crunchbase's search body), 3) Store the returned entities array in the results Page State, 4) Store the uuid from the last result in lastUUID for pagination. For the ListView child template, create a Card with three widgets: a Text for the company name (bound to the identifier.value from each entity), a Text for short_description with maxLines set to 2 and overflow ellipsis, and a Row at the bottom showing funding_total.value_usd formatted as '$X.XM' and last_funding_type as a badge chip. Tapping the card sets selectedOrg to that entity and navigates to the detail screen. On the detail screen, add a Column with sections: Company Header (name, logo_url if available), About (short_description), Funding Summary (total_funding, num_funding_rounds, last_funding_type, last_funding_at), and Company Stats (founded_on, num_employees_enum, homepage_url as a tappable link). Wire the screen's Page Load action to call GetOrganization with the selected entity's permalink and populate all these fields from the response. For pagination, add a 'Load more' Button below the search results ListView. Wire it to re-call SearchOrganizations with after_id set to lastUUID, then append the new results to the existing results Page State list.

Two operational issues commonly appear after the basic integration is working: plan-tier 403 errors and correct cursor-based pagination. For 403 errors: Crunchbase uses 403 status for two distinct situations — wrong authentication AND endpoint not included in your plan tier. When your Cloud Function returns a 403, read the error detail field in the response body to distinguish between them. If the message mentions 'not authorized for this endpoint' or similar, the fix is upgrading your Crunchbase plan — re-checking your API key will not help. Add an On Error action flow branch in FlutterFlow that reads the error detail and shows an appropriate message: 'Your Crunchbase plan does not include access to this endpoint — please upgrade to Pro for search functionality' for entitlement errors vs 'Invalid API key' for auth errors. For pagination: Crunchbase's v4 search uses cursor-based pagination rather than page numbers. The search response includes an entities array and a next_page_token (or an after_id in the last entity's uuid). To load the next page, pass after_id equal to the uuid of the last entity in your current results. Pass an empty string (not null) for the first page. In your 'Load more' button's action flow: 1) Read the uuid of the last item in your results Page State, 2) Call SearchOrganizations with after_id set to that uuid, 3) Append new entities to the results Page State using a Custom Action that merges the lists. Display a 'No more results' message when the returned entities array is empty or contains fewer items than the limit.