DealStack

DealStack offers a specialized SaaS platform described as a modern operating system for the private capital market. It was founded in 2021 by Joel Arnell, a former Partner at Kirkland & Ellis, and Seb Lapinski, a former investor at Oaktree Capital. The founders' direct experience with the inefficiencies of private equity deal administration, which often relies on outdated manual workflows, prompted them to establish the company.

The company's core business revolves around providing a software solution that automates and streamlines critical workflows for private equity firms, their portfolio companies, and M&A law firms. DealStack operates on a subscription-based business model, targeting a client base that includes some of the world's largest private capital firms and M&A law firms. By April 2025, the platform was used by over 30 private capital firms, including six of the top ten globally by funds raised, managing a combined total of over $2.6 trillion in assets.

The platform is engineered to manage complex ownership structures, track and process equity transactions, automate valuation waterfalls, and handle employee equity plans and contract management. It provides a centralized, auditable view of all data, replacing disparate spreadsheets and documents. Key features include automated group structure charts, a full transaction history, a document library, scenario modeling, legal document automation, e-signature integrations, and KYC/investor onboarding workflows. A significant differentiator is its proprietary data model, which creates a unique "private capital ontology" for each client, mapping the legal, financial, and ownership relationships to enhance data quality and power its AI capabilities. This structured data approach aims to provide reliable, verifiable outputs, addressing the common challenges of AI hallucination in a sector reliant on confidential data.

In April 2025, DealStack announced a significant milestone, securing $5.5 million in a seed funding round. This capital infusion, backed by a group of senior professionals from prominent firms in the industry, is intended to expand the company's go-to-market and engineering teams and to further develop its AI functionalities, with a long-term vision of creating a fully agentic platform capable of handling tasks end-to-end without human intervention.

Keywords: private equity technology, private capital operations, deal management software, ownership tracking, waterfall calculation, cap table management, management investment plan, MIP administration, legal workflow automation, contract management, Joel Arnell, Seb Lapinski, PE tech, M&A software, fund administration, portfolio company management, equity management platform, fintech, legaltech, deal workflow, investment management