DealCloud

About DealCloud

DealCloud provides a specialized customer relationship management (CRM) and deal management platform tailored for the capital markets and professional services industries. The company was founded in 2010 by Ben Harrison and Rob Cummings. The founders identified a critical technology gap in the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) sector while working together at the private equity firm Falfurrias Capital Partners. They observed that generic CRM systems like Salesforce were inadequate for the complex, relationship-driven processes of deal-making, which were often managed manually using spreadsheets and email.

This first-hand experience in private equity and investment banking enabled the founders to design a purpose-built platform. Rob Cummings personally architected the initial software, combining his expertise in both private equity and software development. The company's initial focus was on serving the investment community, including private equity firms, growth capital firms, and investment banks. Its client base later expanded to include real estate, consulting, and legal firms. The platform operates on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business model, generating revenue through monthly subscriptions.

The DealCloud platform is designed to manage the entire lifecycle of a deal, from strategy and origination to execution. It provides a centralized hub for tracking pipelines, managing relationships, and analyzing data to improve deal sourcing and execution. Key features include tools for business development, pipeline and relationship management, fundraising and investor relations, data management, and reporting. The system is highly configurable, allowing firms to tailor workflows and data models to their specific processes. It also integrates with third-party data providers like PitchBook and FactSet to enrich client data. In August 2018, DealCloud was acquired by Intapp, a provider of industry-specific cloud software, and now serves as its core technology platform for financial services. This acquisition combined DealCloud's expertise in capital markets with Intapp's broader reach in the professional services sector, creating a comprehensive client lifecycle platform for over 1,100 firms.