If you’re on a private equity origination team, you already know the drill: tracking down private company data is tedious, messy, and—let’s be honest—pretty frustrating. Information is scattered across sources, often outdated, and rarely tells the full story. You might spend hours just trying to answer a few basic questions:
- Who owns the company?
- Who runs it?
- What deals have they done?
- And, most importantly, are they likely to come to market?
That kind of legwork slows you down. It creates gaps in your pipeline and takes time away from what actually moves the needle: building relationships and evaluating real opportunities.
That’s exactly the problem we set out to solve with dakota marketplace.
Instead of cobbling together company profiles from half a dozen platforms, dakota marketplace gives you a clear, up-to-date view of the private company landscape all in one place. With over 157,000 sponsor- and non-sponsor-backed companies, the platform makes it easy to find who’s behind a business, what deals they’ve done, and where they might be headed next.
In this post, we’ll walk through 10 key features built specifically for private equity deal sourcing teams and how they can help you move faster, work smarter, and close more deals.
1. The Broadest Private Company Dataset
Most teams are working off a CRM with a few hundred names. With dakota marketplace, you get 157,000+ private companies, sponsor- and non-sponsor-backed, across every industry. That means more coverage, fewer blind spots, and a dramatically expanded origination pipeline, almost overnight.
2. Complete C-Suite & Board Information
Every profile includes C-suite and board information, with bios and contact info, so you're never guessing who to reach out to. You see who’s running the show, what they’ve done before, and how to connect. It’s everything you need to make your outreach faster and more strategic.
3. Sponsor Ownership Tracking
Want to know who owns what, and when a deal might come to market? Dakota Marketplace tracks sponsor relationships, ownership cycles, and likely exit timelines, giving you an edge in predicting activity. It’s the kind of insight that helps you show up early and show up prepared.
4. Comprehensive Transaction Histories
Every deal, in one place. Dakota Marketplace compiles M&A activity, funding rounds, and exits into a single, centralized view. No more jumping between press releases, filings, or third-party tools… it’s all there, and it’s easy to digest.
5. Dynamic Peer Lists & Competitor Mapping
With dynamic peer sets, you can instantly map the competitive landscape in any sector. That means faster market mapping, better bolt-on identification, and more informed deal evaluations without the research drag.
6. Real-Time Growth Signals
Company profiles include estimated revenue, employee growth, and other signals to help you zero in on businesses gaining momentum. Instead of chasing cold leads, your team can focus on the companies that are actually moving.
7. Advisor & Intermediary Coverage
Knowing who’s behind the scenes matters. Dakota Marketplace shows you which investment banks, law firms, and advisors are working deals giving you a clearer picture of who’s active where, and how you might plug in.
8. Automatic Market Intelligence Updates
The platform updates 2,000+ transactions per month, along with changes in ownership, financings, and leadership moves. You get real-time alerts and updates without having to chase headlines or scrape filings.
9. Seamless Workflow Integration
Dakota Marketplace integrates directly into Salesforce, DealCloud, Affinity, and Excel, fitting into your existing workflows. There’s no steep learning curve or disruption to adoption… your team can pull data straight into the tools they use every day. This makes scaling and standardizing origination processes across the firm effortless.
10. AI-Powered Insights & Summaries
With built-in AI capabilities, dakota marketplace goes beyond raw data. You can access AI-generated summaries of private company accounts, CEO and executive contacts, and even earnings call transcripts. Instead of spending hours reading and compiling notes, your team gets the key takeaways instantly, saving time and expanding coverage across more companies than ever before.
The Bottom Line
Private equity deal sourcing shouldn’t feel like a scavenger hunt. With dakota marketplace, you get a single source of truth that’s always up to date, built for the way origination teams actually work. Whether you’re looking to expand your pipeline, sharpen your targeting, or just save time, the right data makes all the difference.
For more information on any of these features of dakota marketplace or to explore our private company dataset, book a demo!
