Hunter
Hunter is a bootstrapped email outreach platform that finds, verifies, and enriches 150 million professional email addresses for B2B sales, marketing, and recruiting teams via web UI, API, browser extensions, and CRM integrations.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2015
- HeadquartersParis, France
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Hunter does
Hunter (legally Hunter Web Services, Inc.), incorporated in Delaware and originally founded in Paris in April 2015 by Antoine Finkelstein and François Grante, operates an all-in-one email outreach platform that finds, verifies, and acts on professional contact data at scale. The core technology combines the proprietary VelenPublicWebCrawler with AI-assisted pattern deduction to index 150 million professional email addresses sourced exclusively from public web pages, achieving claimed sub-1% verification bounce rates. The platform exposes this data through a web UI, a RESTful API v2 with SDKs in six languages, native Google Sheets and CRM integrations, 5,000+ Zapier destinations, and an MCP server for LLM integration. Product surface spans Domain Search, Email Finder, Email Verifier, Discover (B2B database), Sequences (cold email campaigns), AI Writing Assistant, Signals (intent data), and TechLookup (technographic targeting), served by browser extensions across Chrome, Firefox, and Edge.
The business model is product-led and freemium-first: a permanent free tier drives top-of-funnel acquisition, with paid plans starting at $34/month (annual billing) consuming usage-based credits that expire after 12 months. A separate Data Platform offers pay-as-you-go API and bulk access, and an affiliate program pays 30% recurring commissions for the first 12 months. The GTM motion is primarily self-serve SMB/PLG, with an enterprise-flavored channel via the 2026 ZoomInfo GTM Studio integration. Customer base is distributed across millions of users (7M+ platform users, 600K+ browser extension users), with enterprise logos including Canva, Vimeo, Semrush, Customer.io, Gartner, and G2 Crowd, and named power users like Lattice, Acquire.com, and SparkToro. The company remains bootstrapped with approximately 25 employees and no external funding.
Hunter firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Hunter
- Legal name
- Hunter Web Services, Inc.
- Website
- https://hunter.io
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2015
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Hunter is a bootstrapped email outreach platform that finds, verifies, and enriches 150 million professional email addresses for B2B sales, marketing, and recruiting teams via web UI, API, browser extensions, and CRM integrations.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Where Hunter is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Paris
- HQ country
- France
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices1 record
Markets served
Hunter business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Subscription Plans (All-in-one Cold Outreach Platform): Paid subscription plans providing access to email finding, verification, bulk tasks, campaigns, and team collaboration. Pricing starts at $34/month (annual) with a permanent free tier. Credits consumed for searches and verifications.
- Data Platform (API and Bulk Access): Flexible credit-based access to Hunter's email data via API or bulk file processing. Credits valid for 12 months or until fully used. Suitable for users needing programmatic access to contact data.
- Affiliate Program: 30% recurring commission for referring new users, limited to first 12 months of customer payments. Affiliates earn commissions 45 days after customer payment.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Monthly | Free Plan - Permanent free tier with limited access |
| Subscription | Annual | Starter Plan - Entry-level paid plan |
| Subscription | Annual | Growth Plan - Mid-tier plan for growing teams |
| Usage-based | Pay-as-you-go | Data Platform - Flexible credit-based access |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels6 records
Marketing channels8 records
Hunter product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Hunter is an all-in-one email outreach platform that finds, verifies, and enriches professional email addresses sourced from public web pages. It enables B2B sales, marketing, and recruiting teams to discover companies and contacts, validate email lists, and run automated cold email campaigns via web app, browser extensions, and a RESTful API.
Product overview
Hunter is an all-in-one email outreach platform offering a comprehensive suite of tools for B2B lead generation and cold email automation. The platform comprises core products including Discover (B2B database), Domain Search, Email Finder, Email Verifier, and Sequences (cold email campaigns), augmented by AI Writing Assistant for generative email content creation. Signals provides intent data for identifying active prospects, while TechLookup enables technographic targeting. Additional offerings include Data Platform for API and bulk access, browser extensions (Chrome, Firefox, Edge), Google Sheets integration, Reverse Email Lookup, Logo API, and free lead generation tools. The architecture combines a web crawler that indexes public business data with verification algorithms and campaign automation, accessible through both web interface and RESTful API with MCP integration for LLM compatibility.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Sequences Cold email outreach tool enabling users to compose, schedule, and automate personalized email campaigns with automated follow-ups and campaign performance tracking, sending from the user's own Gmail, Google Workspace, or Outlook account. For sales and marketing teams.
- AI Writing Assistant Generative AI tool that writes high-performing cold emails instantly with personalization at scale, used by outreach teams composing campaign content.
- Discover B2B company database enabling users to identify and discover relevant leads and companies based on ideal customer profile filters such as headcount, headquarters location, and technology use.
- Domain Search Email discovery tool that finds all email addresses associated with a company domain or website using web crawling, with filtering by seniority, department, and verification status. Hunter's original feature from 2015.
- Email Finder Email discovery tool that finds verified professional email addresses by name and company domain, with automatic verification included.
- Email Verifier Email validation tool that checks deliverability, validates format, MX records, SMTP server connectivity, and identifies disposable or webmail addresses to reduce bounces and protect sender reputation.
- Signals Intent data product that identifies prospects actively researching or showing buying signals for products or services, used by sales teams to time outreach.
- TechLookup Technology intelligence tool that lists websites using specific technologies, enabling technographic targeting for sales and prospecting.
- Data Platform B2B email data access platform providing programmatic access via bulk tasks and API for large-scale email discovery and verification, using a flexible credit-based model.
- API RESTful public API (v2) providing programmatic access to email discovery, verification, enrichment, and campaign management endpoints, with SDK wrappers and an MCP server for LLM integration.
- Chrome / Firefox / Edge Extension Browser extension enabling users to find verified email addresses, names, job titles, confidence scores, and sources while browsing any website. 600,000+ users with a 4.7 rating.
- Google Sheets Add-on Native integration allowing users to find and verify email addresses directly within Google Sheets spreadsheets.
Quantifiable outcome
- 150 million professional email addresses available for discovery
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use Hunter
Customer profileNamed customers8 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Hunter technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration6 records
AI capability8 records
Feature8 records
Hunter partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
One partnership is on record.
- ZoomInfocoreZoomInfo integrated Hunter.io's email finder and verification tools into its GTM Studio platform, enabling users to enrich contact datasets with email addresses and validate them without leaving GTM Studio. This partnership positions Hunter as a data provider within ZoomInfo's broader GTM intelligence ecosystem.
Scale indicators6 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Hunter competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Apollo.io: All-in-one sales intelligence and outreach platform offering email finding, verification, enrichment, and sequencing for SMB and mid-market sales teams—the closest direct competitor to Hunter's combined finder/verifier/sequencer stack.
- Snov.io: Email finder, verifier, and cold outreach platform targeting SMB sales and marketing teams with credit-based pricing—closely overlapping Hunter's core use cases, pricing model, and self-serve PLG motion.
- Lusha: B2B contact data platform offering email and phone enrichment via browser extension and API, focused on sales and recruiting use cases—directly comparable extension-first distribution and SMB/enterprise split to Hunter.
- RocketReach: Email finder and contact data platform serving sales, marketing, and recruiting professionals with similar credit-based lookup and bulk/API access patterns.
- ZeroBounce: Email verification and deliverability platform positioned as a specialized complement to Hunter's verifier—sharing the email-validation focus and credit-based pricing.
- NeverBounce: Real-time and bulk email verification and list cleaning service directly competing with Hunter's Email Verifier in deliverability and bounce-reduction use cases.
Broad incumbents
- ZoomInfo: Largest B2B sales intelligence and contact data incumbent with deep company/contact graph, intent data, and enterprise GTM tooling—comparable through Hunter's recent GTM Studio partnership and overlapping email finding/verification capabilities.
- Clearbit (HubSpot): B2B data enrichment and lead intelligence provider inside the HubSpot ecosystem—comparable via firmographic/technographic enrichment and API-led data distribution, but with a broader portfolio of go-to-market data products.
Emerging players
- Adapt.io: B2B contact and company database with prospector, enrichment, and intent signals—comparable to Hunter's Discover and Signals modules but with a more enterprise-tilted positioning.
- Lead411: B2B sales intelligence platform offering contact data, intent, and verification for sales teams—an overlapping but more sales-ops-centric alternative to Hunter's email-first stack.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks7 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Hunter social profiles
Digital presenceHunter compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance2 records
Hunter financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Hunter leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles4 records
Hunter funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Hunter M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Hunter
What does Hunter do?
Hunter is an all-in-one email outreach platform that finds, verifies, and enriches professional email addresses sourced from public web pages. It enables B2B sales, marketing, and recruiting teams to discover companies and contacts, validate email lists, and run automated cold email campaigns via web app, browser extensions, and a RESTful API.
Is Hunter a public or private company?
Hunter is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Hunter founded?
Hunter was founded in 2015. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Hunter based?
Hunter is headquartered in Paris, France, in the Europe region.
How does Hunter make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Subscription Plans (All-in-one Cold Outreach Platform) is the primary driver. The others are data Platform (API and Bulk Access) and affiliate Program.
Who are Hunter's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Apollo.io, Snov.io, Lusha, RocketReach, ZeroBounce and NeverBounce. Broad incumbents are ZoomInfo and Clearbit (HubSpot). Emerging players are Adapt.io and Lead411.
Does Hunter have an API?
Yes. Hunter offers a RESTful public API (v2) that provides endpoints for email discovery, verification, enrichment, and campaign management. The API supports JSON format, authentication via API key (query parameter, X-API-KEY header, or Bearer token). Rate limits vary by endpoint: Discover (5 req/sec, 50 req/min), Domain Search (15 req/sec, 500 req/min), Email Finder (15 req/sec), Email Verifier (10 req/sec, 300 req/min), Enrichment (15 req/sec, 500 req/min). Community SDK wrappers available in Ruby, Node.js, Python, Laravel, Go, and R. An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server is available at https://mcp.hunter.io/mcp for integration with LLMs (OpenAI Responses API, Claude Desktop). Developer documentation is at hunter.io/api-documentation/v2.