Introduction - Signalbase Documentation

Welcome to the Acquisition Signals API

The Acquisition Signals API provides access to comprehensive, real-time acquisition signals aggregated from across the web. Our platform continuously monitors and collects acquisition activity, giving you up-to-date information on M&A deals, acquirers, and market trends.

Acquisition Signals Endpoint

View the complete OpenAPI specification

Count Mode

You can get the total number of results matching any filter combination without consuming credits by adding count=true to your request. This returns an empty data array with full pagination metadata, including totalCount.

curl -X GET "https://www.trysignalbase.com/api/v2/signals/acquisitions?count=true&countries=US,GB&date_preset=last_90d" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Response:

{
  "success": true,
  "data": [],
  "pagination": {
    "currentPage": 1,
    "totalPages": 8,
    "totalCount": 152,
    "hasNextPage": true,
    "hasPreviousPage": false
  },
  "meta": {
    "endpoint": "signals.acquisitions",
    "creditsUsed": 0
  }
}

Use count mode to preview how many results match your filters before fetching actual data. This is useful for building filter UIs, showing result counts, or validating queries — all at zero credit cost.

Key Features

Real-time Signals: Acquisition signals are aggregated continuously from web sources
Advanced Filtering: Filter by countries, categories, subcategories, date ranges, and search terms
Numeric Range Filters: Filter by amount, employee count, and founded year
Flexible Sorting: Sort by date, amount, or employee count
Verification Status: Filter signals by verified, unverified, or pending status
Pagination Support: Efficiently retrieve large datasets with up to 100 results per page
Rich Response Data: Detailed company information, acquisition amounts, and acquirer data
Credit-based Usage: Transparent credit consumption per API call

Company fields and acquirer object

The acquired company uses companyCountry and companySubcategory on the root of each signal. The nested acquiringCompany object uses the same naming (companyCountry, companySubcategory) so all company HQ fields are consistent across the API. See Company fields in signal responses.

Service Level

Rate Limit: Based on your subscription tier
Uptime: 99% guaranteed uptime
Data Freshness: Real-time aggregation ensures up-to-date signals
Maximum Results: Up to 100 results per page

Authentication

All API endpoints require authentication using a Bearer token passed in the Authorization header.

curl -X GET "https://www.trysignalbase.com/api/v2/signals/acquisitions?page=1&limit=20" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Matching by Company URL (Recommended)

If you know a company’s website domain or LinkedIn page, query by URL instead of by name. Name search is fuzzy and can return lookalikes (Novartis also matches Novartis UK); URL identifiers match exactly one company.

# By website domain
curl -X GET "https://www.trysignalbase.com/api/v2/signals/acquisitions?company_domain=novartis.com" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

# By LinkedIn company page
curl -X GET "https://www.trysignalbase.com/api/v2/signals/acquisitions?company_linkedin_url=linkedin.com/company/novartis" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Accepted input formats. URL identifiers are normalized before matching, so equivalent variants return the same results:

company_domain: novartis.com, www.novartis.com, https://www.novartis.com/, https://novartis.com/any/path — scheme, www., port, path and trailing slash are ignored. Values that can’t be reduced to a domain return 400.
company_linkedin_url: linkedin.com/company/novartis, https://www.linkedin.com/company/Novartis/ — http/https, www. and trailing slash are ignored, the slug is case-insensitive. URLs that aren’t LinkedIn company pages (e.g. personal /in/ profiles) return 400.

Strict matching. When a URL identifier is provided, the API never falls back to fuzzy name matching: if no company matches, the result is empty. Identifiers combine with AND — company_domain=novartis.com&company_name=Acme returns empty because they disagree. Match confidence. Every result row includes match_confidence:

Value	Meaning
`exact`	Matched via `company_domain` or `company_linkedin_url`
`fuzzy`	Matched via `company_name` partial match only
`none`	No company identifier was part of the query

Query Parameters

Pagination

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`page`	integer	1	Page number
`limit`	integer	20	Results per page (max: 100)

Date Filters

Parameter	Type	Description
`dateFrom`	string	Filter by date from (ISO-8601 string)
`dateTo`	string	Filter by date to (ISO-8601 string)
`date_preset`	string	Relative date shorthand — takes precedence over `dateFrom`/`dateTo`. See Date Presets

Company Filters

Parameter	Type	Description
`countries`	string	Comma-separated country codes (e.g., `US,GB,DE`)
`categories`	string	Pipe-separated company categories / industries
`subcategories`	string	Comma-separated subcategory IDs (e.g., `ai,fintech,saas`)
`industry`	string	Comma-separated exact industry names
`company_domain`	string	Recommended. Acquired company website domain (e.g. `novartis.com`). Strict match — see Matching by company URL
`company_linkedin_url`	string	Recommended. Acquired company LinkedIn URL (e.g. `linkedin.com/company/novartis`). Strict match
`company_name`	string	Search by acquired company name (partial match, fuzzy). Prefer the URL identifiers above
`search`	string	Free-text search across company name & industry

Numeric Range Filters

Parameter	Type	Description
`amount_min`	integer	Minimum acquisition amount in whole dollars (not cents)
`amount_max`	integer	Maximum acquisition amount in whole dollars (not cents)
`employee_count_min`	integer	Minimum company employee count
`employee_count_max`	integer	Maximum company employee count
`founded_year_min`	integer	Minimum company founded year
`founded_year_max`	integer	Maximum company founded year

Acquisition-specific Filters

Parameter	Type	Description
`currency`	string	Filter by currency (ISO 4217 code). Almost all acquisitions are `USD`; a few are `EUR`. See Currency Values
`verification_status`	string	Comma-separated statuses: `verified`, `unverified`, `pending`
`acquiring_company`	string	Search by acquiring company name (partial match)

Sorting

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`sort_by`	string	`occurred_at`	Sort field: `occurred_at`, `discovered_at`, `amount`, `employee_count`
`sort_order`	string	`desc`	Sort direction: `asc` or `desc`

Response Structure

All successful responses follow this structure:

{
  "success": true,
  "data": [...],
  "pagination": {
    "currentPage": 1,
    "totalPages": 10,
    "totalCount": 200,
    "hasNextPage": true,
    "hasPreviousPage": false
  },
  "meta": {
    "endpoint": "signals.acquisitions",
    "creditsUsed": 1
  }
}

Error Handling

The API returns standard HTTP status codes:

200: Success
401: Unauthorized - Invalid or missing API key
429: Rate limit exceeded
500: Internal server error

Error responses include:

{
  "success": false,
  "error": "Error message description"
}

Example Usage

Filter by Date Preset and Country

curl -X GET "https://www.trysignalbase.com/api/v2/signals/acquisitions?date_preset=last_90d&countries=US,GB" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Filter by Amount and Acquiring Company

curl -X GET "https://www.trysignalbase.com/api/v2/signals/acquisitions?amount_min=10000000&acquiring_company=Google" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Filter by Subcategory with Sorting

curl -X GET "https://www.trysignalbase.com/api/v2/signals/acquisitions?subcategories=ai&sort_by=amount&sort_order=desc" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Combined Filters

curl -X GET "https://www.trysignalbase.com/api/v2/signals/acquisitions?date_preset=last_30d&countries=US&verification_status=verified&sort_by=discovered_at&limit=50" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

​Welcome to the Acquisition Signals API

Acquisition Signals Endpoint

​Count Mode

​Key Features

​Company fields and acquirer object

​Service Level

​Authentication

​Matching by Company URL (Recommended)

​Query Parameters

​Pagination

​Date Filters

​Company Filters

​Numeric Range Filters

​Acquisition-specific Filters

​Sorting

​Response Structure

​Error Handling

​Example Usage

​Filter by Date Preset and Country

​Filter by Amount and Acquiring Company

​Filter by Subcategory with Sorting

​Combined Filters

Welcome to the Acquisition Signals API

Count Mode

Key Features

Company fields and acquirer object

Service Level

Authentication

Matching by Company URL (Recommended)

Query Parameters

Pagination

Date Filters

Company Filters

Numeric Range Filters

Acquisition-specific Filters

Sorting

Response Structure

Error Handling

Example Usage

Filter by Date Preset and Country

Filter by Amount and Acquiring Company

Filter by Subcategory with Sorting

Combined Filters