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Fundraising research and the work that follows it usually happen in two different places. You build the target list in one tool, then move it somewhere else to write the outreach, prep the meeting, and brief the team. Every handoff costs time, and the context gets thinner each time it moves.
The Dakota Marketplace Copilot Connector closes that gap. You build an agent once in Microsoft Copilot Studio, connect it to Dakota Marketplace, and publish it to Teams and Microsoft 365 Copilot. From there your team asks questions in plain language and gets answers drawn from allocator, investment firm, fund, transaction, and fundraising news data. Everyone signs in with their own Marketplace login, so the agent only returns what each person’s account can already see.
In this article, we’ll cover what you need before you start, the six steps to connect Dakota Marketplace to Copilot, and the prompts worth running first.
What You Need Before You Start
- An active Dakota Marketplace membership. The agent only returns data your Marketplace account can see.
- Access to Microsoft Copilot Studio, with permission to create agents in an environment. If you are not sure you have it, ask your IT or Power Platform admin.
- Permission to use custom MCP servers. Some organizations block them through Power Platform data policies. If you hit a data policy error, your admin can allow the Dakota Marketplace connector.
- Copilot Studio capacity. Conversations with your agent draw on your organization’s Copilot Studio credits, not Dakota’s.
Not a member yet? Book a demo and we’ll show you what’s inside.
Connecting Dakota Marketplace to Microsoft Copilot
Step 1: Create Your Agent
Go to copilotstudio.microsoft.com and sign in with your work account. Pick your environment using the selector at the top of the page, then select Create, then New agent. Enter a name, such as Dakota Marketplace Assistant, add a short description, and select Create. If Copilot Studio opens a chat-based setup, skip it and configure the agent directly.
Step 2: Turn On Generative Orchestration
Open the agent’s Settings and confirm generative orchestration is on. MCP tools only work when it is. New agents usually have it enabled already.
Step 3: Add the Dakota Marketplace MCP Server
In your agent, open Tools, select Add a tool, then New tool, then Model Context Protocol. Enter Dakota Marketplace as the server name and https://marketplace-mcp.dakota.com/mcp as the server URL. Under authentication, select OAuth 2.0, then Dynamic discovery. Select Create, then Next. Dynamic discovery registers Copilot Studio with the Dakota sign-in service automatically, so you will not need a client ID or secret.
Step 4: Sign In With Your Marketplace Credentials
In the Add tool dialog, select Create a new connection. When the sign-in window opens, enter your Dakota Marketplace username and password, then select Add to agent. If the window does not open, allow pop-ups for copilotstudio.microsoft.com and try again.
Step 5: Test the Agent
Open the Test pane and ask something simple, such as “Find family offices in New York that invest in private equity.” Results should come back within a few seconds, and questions that need several lookups will take a little longer. To confirm the agent used Dakota Marketplace, check the test pane’s activity view for Dakota Marketplace tool calls.
Step 6: Publish to Teams and Microsoft 365 Copilot
Select Publish, go to Channels, select Teams and Microsoft 365 Copilot, and add the channel. Your Teams admin may need to approve it first. Set the Dakota Marketplace tool to use each end user’s credentials rather than yours, so everyone signs in with their own login. Each colleague needs their own active Marketplace account.
Start Querying Dakota Marketplace Data in Copilot
- Find allocators: “Find public pension funds in the Midwest that invest in private credit.”
- Map decision-makers: “Who are the CIOs at family offices in the San Francisco Bay Area?”
- Track open funds: “Which firms have private equity buyout funds that are open and fundraising now?”
- Follow the money: “List closed software buyout transactions from 2026.”
Add the ones your team runs most to the agent’s suggested prompts so they appear as one-click buttons.
Ready to Connect?
Recommended agent instructions and a full troubleshooting table are in the Dakota Marketplace Copilot setup guide. If the agent answers without Dakota data, check that generative orchestration is on and the instructions are pasted in.
Book a Dakota Marketplace demo and we’ll walk through it live.
