DealCloud
The De-Facto Standard for Deal and Relationship Management

It has been a rocket-ship ride for DealCloud in the past three years. The company has doubled its client base and has expanded into investment banking, fund of fund, real estate, and corporate development markets. This represents a 151 percent increase in users, meaning that DealCloud's technology now supports over 25,000 principal investors, M&A advisors, and other deal professionals every day. But what's the fuel that has propelled DealCloud to achieve this overwhelming feat? It's simple yet powerful: A vertical-specific, custom-built SaaS solution that has the potential to change the game for deal and relationship managers working in capital markets firms.

"DealCloud is designed with the busy dealmaker in mind. Every dashboard, chart, graph, tearsheet, datasheet, and profile can be customized to meet each user's preferences and interests"

Historically, professionals in the private capital markets have used generic CRM solutions to streamline their operations, deal pipeline, and relationships. Built as a horizontal tool, these CRM solutions often failed to cater to the specific needs of the industry. This is where DealCloud breaks the status-quo. "DealCloud is more than CRM," states Lokesh Seth, the COO of DealCloud.“Our platform equips dealmakers with the tools they need to improve operations, execute on deals, and increase firm-wide transparency.” Whether it's an investment bank or a private equity firm, DealCloud's data-powered platform enables dealmakers and principal investing professionals to execute on transactions at the highest levels, while reducing their total cost of ownership (TCO) and reducing much of a firm's administrative burden.

No matter the size or makeup of the firm, the DealCloud platform empowers clients to harness the cumulative intellectual capital of their people and processes. "We know that no two capital market firms are the same. That's why we built our platform to be flexible and easily configurable to meet changing needs of private equity, growth equity, venture capital, real estate, and credit investors, as well as highly acquisitive private and public companies, investment banks, and M&A advisory firms," says Seth. Market-leading firms now rely on DealCloud's technology platform in order to compete in today's investment landscape, and the company has plans to further enhance their suite of offerings.

The Single-Source Deal Management Platform

DealCloud's platform is unique because it’s not just a place to store email and call logs. Instead, DealCloud enables dealmakers to collect, visualize, and take action on their data in a manner that aligns with their unique objectives. By understanding the critical role that market data and relationships play in dealmaking, the platform helps partners to manage client and individual matters, engagements, and projects across a team.

Our platform equips dealmakers with the tools they need to improve operations, execute on deals, and increase firm-wide transparency

"Our platform powers the deal-making process of capital market firms—from origination to execution," mentions Seth.

At its core, the platform has three principal components: the software stack, a cohesive data intelligence system, and external integrations. Leveraging their experience in the industry, DealCloud customizes every software instance to the client’s liking and configures flexible dashboards that are ideal for each firm's specific functional areas.
Through the software, DealCloud clients can leverage multiple data sources to enrich and augment a firm's proprietary data, revolutionizing the way they source and initiate deals, and manage relationships. Through the data intelligence system called "DataCortex," contacts and deal information are matched and combined with each client's proprietary data into a single cohesive record based on the client's preferences. "This process is run by a specially developed algorithm and recommendation engine that brings together the powerful combination of data and software," comments Seth. “On top of that, DealCloud can speak back-and-forth with external systems - such as a firm’s HR and payroll software, data rooms, or portfolio monitoring tools - creating a single source of truth for the entire firm, from the administrator to the Managing Director.”

The Powerful Combination of Proprietary Software and DataCortex

DealCloud DataCortex also allows users to simplify complex reports, analyze industry trends, and evaluate potential synergies in the same hub where they originate deals and manage relationships. It helps clients to make critical decisions quickly and identify new, meaningful opportunities. "No matter what part of the investment lifecycle you focus on, DealCloud harmonizes every data set that the firm owns or outsources," adds Seth. "We empower dealmakers to search and query third-party data sets directly from within the DealCloud platform, eliminating the need to toggle back-and-forth between multiple data provider sites which in turn gives the professional more time to spend on building relationships."

"DealCloud is designed with the busy dealmaker in mind. Every dashboard, chart, graph, tearsheet, datasheet, and profile can be customized to meet each user's preferences and interests," says Seth.

Further, the solution enables teams to download and design preformatted reports based on any data set from their phone, tablet, or computer. They can reduce administrative burden by scheduling these reports to be sent to a team member, or group of people as a PDF or Word document.

A Plethora of Applications

No matter what corner of the capital markets industry a firm works in, DealCloud shepards them through a thorough implementation, data migration, and training process. Every private equity client, for example, gets access to a team of account managers who solely focus on helping the firm’s business development professionals achieve better market coverage and improve pipeline visibility.

For real estate investors, the platform can be configured for property management and transaction workflow as well as team collaboration. For fund-of-fund firms (FoFs), the platform acts as a single source of truth for all information regarding deals and relationships as well as helps firms maintain visibility across all capital deployments.

"The bottom line is that we provide a 360-degree view of the firm through a single platform such that our clients can run their front office efficiently," states Seth. “No matter if it’s an investment banker creating a buyer’s list, an investor relations professional leading a fundraising cycle, or a venture capitalist managing their executive network, DealCloud makes it happen faster, and with more accuracy.”

Mitigating risk exposure

Another key differentiator of DealCloud's platform is its 'emphasis-by-design' on security and compliance. "Our solution is hosted in the cloud, but we have placed stringent measures around how we build and develop our software, and how we protect our clients’ data. We invest heavily in security to ensure that it aligns with even the most complex regulatory conditions," says Seth. DealCloud's data protection, storage, and privacy practices are sophisticated and diligent, designed to meet the risk and compliance requirements of clients ranging from small, private entities to large, publicly-traded firms.

DealCloud Connect and Beyond

While DealCloud's platform is witnessing rapid adoption in the capital markets industry, the company has bigger plans to enhance support for its users. As an example, DealCloud hosts a biannual user conference titled DealCloud Connect in both New York and London that is attended by hundreds of capital markets professionals. At these informative events, the DealCloud team shares high-quality, industry-specific content as well as DealCloud platform tips and tricks. Attendees can also visit DealCloud University Labs at the event to receive on-site technical support.

"We consider ourselves technology partners, and as our technology evolves alongside the most effective and innovative dealmakers in the world, we will be incorporating novel technologies such as neural networks and machine learning into our platform," informs Seth. In the near future, the company also has plans to leverage its growing traction in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region to accelerate international expansion.