API. MCP.
Two acronyms that are everywhere this year, often treated as interchangeable. They shouldn't be.
Most people work with APIs every day without ever needing to define one.
APIs are quiet plumbing. They power your CRM and keep it useful in the background. MCP is newer, and it does something genuinely different: it sits on top of an API and lets anyone ask questions of live data in plain English, no code required.
This article covers what an API is, what Dakota's API options look like, and where the MCP fits in.
What an API Actually Is
An API (application programming interface) is a structured way for two software systems to talk to each other. One system sends a request, the other sends back exactly the data that was asked for. You already use them dozens of times a day without thinking about it.
For fundraisers and allocators, a common example of an API in action is the connection between Dakota Marketplace and a CRM. The Dakota API integrates directly with your CRM, data warehouse, and analytics platforms without proprietary middleware required. Account and contact updates and investment preferences flow in automatically and stay in sync.
The trade-off has always been that APIs require a developer to set up. Lines of code, configuration, ongoing maintenance. Once they exist, they're powerful. Getting them to exist takes engineering time.
What Dakota's API Actually Does
Dakota's API gives you direct, programmatic access to Dakota Marketplace's dataset. Think of it as buying a slice (or all) of the library, delivered in a format you can pipe into whatever system your team uses. The data updates in real time, so your version stays in sync with Marketplace.
That opens up four core use cases for fundraising and IR teams:
- Live CRM data. Salesforce, HubSpot, or DealCloud records enrich and update automatically. No more manual imports or stale entries.
- Internal dashboards. Feed live allocator data into your BI tools, data warehouses, or proprietary platforms for real-time reporting.
- Due diligence at scale. Pull accurate, programmatic data into investment and IR workflows without doing the research manually.
- Custom integrations. Build anything your engineering team wants on top, with full programmatic access to the dataset you have licensed.
The API is delivered in targeted packages: US and Canada allocator data, international allocator data, financial advisor data, 13F holdings, and private company data. You can pull any single dataset, or one connection to everything. You only pay for and access what you actually need.
The catch: APIs require a developer to build with. Every new use case is engineering work. Want to pull Dakota data into a tool your tech team built in-house? That's a project. Want to ask Dakota a question you didn't pre-build a report for? You have to write the query, or ask someone who can.
This is where the model is changing.
Pick the API package that fits your team: full dataset access, or a specific slice (LP data, financial advisors, 13F, private companies). Book a demo.
What the MCP Server Adds
You might have also heard about the Dakota MCP server. MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open standard from Anthropic that sits on top of an API. It uses the same underlying data and the same security model, but it makes that data accessible through natural language instead of code.
The benefit: anyone on your team can connect Dakota to Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or Copilot and ask questions like "Show me all endowments in the Northeast that invest in private equity", and get live Dakota data back in seconds. No developer required.
Together, the API and the MCP server cover both ends of the spectrum: programmatic control for technical teams, plain-English access for everyone else.
See Dakota's API in your CRM
Dakota Marketplace covers accounts and contacts, is updated daily, with 75+ investment preference filters across every allocator type. Whether you connect through the API into Salesforce, HubSpot, or DealCloud, or through your preferred AI assistant, you'll always be working from the same live, daily-updated data.
Book a demo to learn more about Dakota’s APIs.
