Private markets have always rewarded those with better information. For decades, that information advantage belonged to a handful of elite institutions — the largest pensions, sovereign wealth funds, and bulge bracket banks — with armies of analysts, proprietary networks built over generations, and the budget to pay for it all. The data that drove their decisions lived behind extraordinarily expensive paywalls. Platforms charging $50,000, $100,000, or more per year. Data that smaller firms, emerging managers, independent advisors, and growing institutions simply could not access. The information gap was, by design, a moat for the privileged few.
That era is over. Dakota Private Markets was built on a straightforward conviction: that deeply comprehensive private markets intelligence should be accessible to every serious professional in the market — not just those with seven-figure data budgets. We built a platform with extensive coverage across GPs, funds, portfolio companies, transactions, and performance benchmarking, and made it available for $2,995 per user per year. The institutional-grade data that used to be locked away is now within reach of any firm that is serious about competing in private markets. And with AI Intelligence available as an add-on, the question is no longer whether you have the data — the question is what you want to know.
Full access to every GP, fund, portfolio company, transaction, performance record, and custom benchmarking tool in the platform. AI Intelligence is available as a premium add-on at additional cost — giving subscribers the ability to query the entire platform conversationally and get answers in seconds. Comprehensive private markets data at a price point designed to be genuinely accessible.
AI Intelligence Add-On: Subscribers can unlock Dakota's conversational intelligence layer for an additional per-user fee. Ask any question across the full database in plain English and get answers instantly. Contact us for add-on pricing.
Dakota Private Markets covers more than 20,000 general partners across every strategy, geography, and vintage. Each GP profile is deeply built — investment strategy, fund history, AUM, team composition, and the firm's full track record of funds raised and deployed.
This is not a scraped database. It is a curated, continuously maintained intelligence asset that reflects how firms actually operate today — not how they described themselves three years ago in a fundraising document.
ASK AI INTELLIGENCE
“Show me all mid-market buyout GPs in the Southeast with funds raised in the last four years and an average hold period under five years.”
Dakota tracks more than 50,000 private funds — with verified performance data on over 14,000 of them. IRR, TVPI, DPI, RVPI, and vintage year benchmarking across peer groups, strategies, and geographies. Our custom benchmarking technology lets you build the exact comparison set that matters for your analysis — not a generic peer group that someone else decided is close enough.
For anyone evaluating managers, conducting due diligence, or building a private markets portfolio, this is the most credible, most granular fund performance database available at this price point — or arguably any price point.
ASK AI INTELLIGENCE
“Compare the quartile rankings of upper-mid-market buyout funds from vintage years 2018 through 2021 and show me which managers consistently rank in the top quartile across multiple vintages.”
Dakota's portfolio company coverage goes deeper than a simple directory. Our database covers more than 150,000 sponsor-backed portfolio companies — with detailed CEO bios and investment memos that give you meaningful context on why each deal was done, what the thesis was, and who is running the business.
For deal sourcers, lenders, investment bankers, and corporate development teams, this kind of depth changes how you prepare for a conversation. You can understand the strategic context behind any portfolio company before you make a single call — knowing the GP's original investment rationale, the management team's background, and where the company sits in its hold period.
ASK AI INTELLIGENCE
“Find all PE-backed healthcare services companies held by top-quartile mid-market GPs that were acquired more than four years ago and have a CEO with an operating background.”
The private markets universe extends far beyond PE-backed companies. Dakota covers more than 600,000 non-sponsor-backed private companies — founder-owned businesses, family-owned enterprises, and independent operators that represent the largest and most underserved segment of the private markets opportunity set.
For lenders, direct lenders, business development companies, and deal sourcers looking beyond the crowded sponsor ecosystem, this database opens an entirely different universe of opportunity — one that is largely invisible to those relying on traditional data sources.
ASK AI INTELLIGENCE
“Show me founder-owned manufacturing companies in the Midwest with revenues between $20M and $100M that have never taken institutional capital.”
Dakota's transaction database captures more than 20,000 private market deals to date — acquisitions, add-ons, exits, recapitalizations, and financings — with new transactions added at a rate of approximately 2,000 per month. Every transaction is mapped back to the GP, the portfolio company, and the fund — creating a living, connected picture of how capital flows through the private markets.
This is not a static archive. It is a real-time intelligence feed that tells you what is happening in the market right now, who is doing deals, in which sectors, and at what pace — giving every subscriber a genuine market pulse that was previously available only to the largest and most connected institutions.
ASK AI INTELLIGENCE
“Which GPs have been most active in healthcare technology acquisitions in the last six months, and what is the average deal size?”
Performance data in private markets is notoriously difficult to obtain, verify, and compare. For decades, accessing fund-level performance on any meaningful scale required a six-figure contract with a legacy data provider — and even then, the benchmarking tools were rigid, the peer groups were predetermined, and the analysis was always someone else's approximation of what you actually needed.
Dakota has solved all three problems. Our performance database covers verified data on more than 14,000 private funds — IRR, TVPI, DPI, RVPI, and vintage year returns across every major strategy. And our proprietary custom benchmarking technology puts the analysis entirely in your hands. You define the peer group. You choose the filters — vintage year, strategy, geography, fund size, or any combination. You build the benchmark that actually reflects your investment universe, not a generic proxy that someone else decided was close enough.
This level of benchmarking flexibility used to require either a dedicated internal team or an expensive contract with a legacy data provider. It is now available to every Dakota subscriber.
ASK AI INTELLIGENCE — ADD-ON
“Build me a custom benchmark of European mid-market buyout funds from vintages 2016 through 2020 and show me which managers are top quartile on both IRR and TVPI — then flag any of those managers currently in market with a new fund.”
The AI Intelligence layer is available as a premium add-on for Dakota Private Markets subscribers. Once activated, it gives you a conversational interface into the full platform — no queries, no filters, no analyst required. Just ask a question in plain English and get answers drawn from 20,000+ GPs, 50,000+ funds, 150,000+ portfolio companies, 600,000+ private companies, 20,000+ transactions, and performance data on 14,000+ funds.
“Which top-quartile buyout GPs have raised a fund in the last three years, are headquartered in New York, and have more than five portfolio companies in the healthcare sector?”
“Show me all PE-backed software companies held for more than five years by managers in our target list — likely exit candidates in the next 12 to 18 months.”
“Which GPs have been the most active acquirers in the industrial distribution sector over the last two years, and how do their fund performance metrics compare?”
“Find founder-owned business services companies in the Southeast with $50M–$150M in revenue that have never taken PE capital and have been operating for more than ten years.”
“Build a vintage 2019 benchmark for upper-mid-market buyout funds and rank all managers by TVPI — then show me which of those managers are currently in market with a new fund.”
“Which GPs in our database have completed more than ten add-on acquisitions in the last 24 months and are known for aggressive buy-and-build strategies in fragmented industries?”
$2,995 per user per year for full platform access. AI Intelligence available as a premium add-on — contact us for pricing. Deep, reliable private markets data at a price point that makes it genuinely accessible to serious professionals across the market.