ORCA

The buyer list that remembers.

Deal software for corporate finance boutiques

At a glance

Set up around how
the firm runs its mandates.

A buyer list that starts from the firm's own history. On any new mandate, ORCA suggests counterparties from what each investor has said it wants, who has bought something similar, and how far each one got on earlier processes. Every suggestion says why.

See how it works

Every live mandate on one screen. Pitches and mandates by code name and stage, from teaser to completion, with the fee pipeline at the top for the Monday meeting.

See the screens

One counterparty, many roles. The same fund can be a client on one deal, a bidder on another and a lender on a third, all on one record.

What's in it

Confidential by default. Restricted names are held back from suggestions, with NDAs, conflicts and wall-crossings on record. Hosted in London, and never used to train AI.

Discretion

Priced by the size of the firm. From £1,200 a month, with everyone included, from the partners to the analysts.

See the pricing

Set up with you. We move your data across and shape ORCA around how the firm works during onboarding. Both are included.

Talk to us

Your data is yours. Export everything from settings whenever you like, without asking. If the firm ever leaves, its data goes with it.

Discretion
The buyer list

Who engaged last time,
and how far they got.

On any mandate, ORCA suggests counterparties using three things only the firm knows: what each investor has said it wants, who has bought something similar, and how far each one got on the firm's earlier processes.

Every suggestion gives its reasons, and restricted names are held back. Tick the ones you want and add them to the list. New names still come from research, but you start from what the firm already knows. A debt raise runs the same way, with lenders on the list.

The reasons come from the firm's own records. ORCA AI plays no part in them.

This example is from Ardlow & Penn, a corporate finance boutique in our demo. The firm and everyone in it are invented, but the software is the real thing. Open the mandate closest to your own work and press Suggest counterparties.

Healthcare sale Software sale Energy sale Corporate debt Project finance Equity raise

Or see it on your own names. Send us an old buyer list under NDA, anonymised if your own terms need it. We'll load it and show you the suggestions before you commit to anything. Talk to us.

Project Osprey

Sell-side

Physiotherapy clinic group · 23 sites · United Kingdom · Majority

14On the list
4NBO
2IM sent
3Declined

Suggested counterparties

  • Mournefield CapitalStrong fit
    NBO submitted on Project WrenHealthcare servicesSize: £25m to £75mGood relationship
  • Thornbury CapitalStrong fit
    Bought Kinetic MSKHealthcare servicesUnited KingdomLast in touch 1 month ago
  • Harrowgate HealthStrong fit
    Bought Corran Dental PartnersMajorityGood relationship
Held back: 2 on the restricted listAdd ticked to the list
From the Ardlow & Penn demo. The firm, the project and every counterparty are invented.
The situation

The firm knows a lot.
It just isn't all in one place.

In most corporate finance boutiques, the story of a deal lives in four places: a spreadsheet kept by whoever runs the mandate, an old buyer list on someone's drive, years of email, and whatever was said over lunch and never written down.

ORCA gives the firm one place for all of it, so the relationships stay with the firm when people move on.
What's in it

The standard pieces, plus the ones
only corporate finance needs.

Every firm gets companies, contacts, meetings, calendar, tasks and reports, running on its own deal stages.

Marketing

  1. Teaser
  2. NDA
  3. IM

Offers

  1. NBO
  2. Management presentation
  3. Data room
  4. Binding offer

Closing

  1. Heads of terms
  2. Exclusivity
  3. Signing
  4. Completion

A typical sale. Each firm uses its own stages, and a debt raise has its own too.

The deal book

Leads, pitches and mandates in one place. A won pitch becomes a mandate in one click, with its client, team and history. Partners see every live mandate on one screen, by code name.

Investor appetite, recorded once

Each investor's criteria sit on its own record: geography, sector, stake, ticket size and how strong the relationship is. A new buyer list starts from a filter, such as trade and private equity buyers of UK software at £20m to £50m, or majority buyers of healthcare services in the Benelux.

Process history that stays

Who was approached, who signed the NDA, who bid and how far they got, kept against the real company. The process runs from the list, so the history builds as the work gets done. On the next mandate, ORCA reads it back as suggestions. Each mandate also prints on one page for the partners' meeting.

One counterparty, many roles

A fund can be the client on one deal, a bidder on another and a lender on a third. Meetings record the role each counterparty played, so the history stays clear.

Lenders and debt processes

Lenders have their own criteria: products, hold size, margin, tenor, leverage or DSCR, and the assets they'll finance. A refinancing gets its own list and stages, from NDA through credit committee to term sheet, with terms side by side.

Fees on every mandate

Retainer, success fee and minimum fee on each mandate, a register of what has been invoiced and paid, and the fee pipeline at the top of the partners' dashboard.

Comparable deals

The deals the firm hears about, logged with buyer, seller, sector, size and multiples, in whatever columns you already keep. Anyone who bought something similar comes up on the next buyer list.

A brief before every meeting

Log a meeting once against everyone in the room. Before the next one, ORCA can put together a one-page brief: recent emails and meetings, open to-dos, live deals and any news.

Restricted list, conflicts and NDAs

Restricted names, with the date each was added, are held back from every suggested list. Conflict and KYC dates on each mandate, an NDA register and a wall-crossing log, with roles deciding who sees what.

Works alongside Outlook

Copy ORCA in on an email from any mail client and it's filed against the right company and contact. Calendars subscribe by feed.

News, matched to the book

The sources the firm already reads, checked every ten minutes and attached to the companies and people they mention. A morning briefing covers what changed overnight.

Flexible where the firm needs it

Sections, stages and fields follow the firm's own process. We tune them with you during onboarding, whether that's a pipeline shared with a partner firm or earn-out tracking after close.

Inside the demo

Inside Ardlow & Penn.

Every firm, project and person in these screens is invented, and anyone can look round.

The partners' dashboard. Fee pipeline, live mandates and what needs doing, on one screen. The deal book. Every mandate by code name and stage. A buyer list. Project Osprey's list, with a count by status and notes on every name. Suggested counterparties. Each with its reasons, and the restricted names held back. Comparable deals. Buyer, target, size and multiple, feeding the next buyer list. The fee register. Retainers and success fees, invoiced and paid, by mandate.

The partners' dashboard. Fee pipeline, live mandates and what needs doing, on one screen.

The deal book. Every mandate by code name and stage.

A buyer list. Project Osprey's list, with a count by status and notes on every name.

Suggested counterparties. Each with its reasons, and the restricted names held back.

Comparable deals. Buyer, target, size and multiple, feeding the next buyer list.

The fee register. Retainers and success fees, invoiced and paid, by mandate.

See a live mandate Talk to us
Who it suits

Firms that run on
mandates and relationships.

Usually under a hundred people, where every deal is different and no one is employed full time to look after the software.

Corporate finance & M&A advisers

Sell-side and buy-side mandates, pitches, buyer lists and the relationships behind them.

Energy & infrastructure advisers

Renewables and infrastructure deals, and the investors and lenders behind them.

Debt & capital advisers

Lenders, terms, facilities and the history of who lent on what.

Fund managers and family offices see deals from the other side of the table, so they need a different setup. We're happy to talk it through.

Getting started

We do the setup.

1

Your data comes across

Send us what you have: spreadsheets, old buyer lists, your current CRM. We tidy it and load it.

2

Set up around the firm

We set up the stages, fields and lists from how the firm actually works.

3

Your people get trained

Partners and analysts both, using the firm's own deals.

4

We stay on hand

Support and changes come straight from the people who build ORCA.

From your side, it takes a conversation about how the firm runs and time to check what came across. Setup and moving your data are included in the price.

Discretion

Confidential by default.
Your data is yours.

A corporate finance firm's records often include inside information. Here is how ORCA looks after them.

  • Hosted in London on Amazon Web Services, with off-site backups in the EU.
  • Never sold, never used to train AI. ORCA AI runs on Anthropic's commercial API, under which inputs are not used for training, and it can be switched off for the whole firm.
  • Two-factor sign-in for every user, and roles and permissions that decide who sees which sections and, where wanted, only their own records.
  • A UK GDPR data processing agreement on request, with the sub-processor list and breach procedure. Security questionnaires are answered in writing.
  • Full export at any time for account administrators, from settings, without asking.
Pricing

Priced by the size of the firm.
Everyone included.

Size of the firmA month, plus VAT
Up to 10 people£1,200
11 to 20 people£2,250
21 to 35 people£3,500
36 to 60 people£5,000
61 to 100 people£7,000
More than 100 peopleFrom £9,000

Everyone in the firm gets an account, from the partners to the analysts. Every module is included at every size, and so are setup and moving your existing data across.

ORCA is flexible, and we'll tune it to how the firm works during onboarding.

Prices exclude VAT. Paid monthly under a written licence. The firm can leave at the end of any month and take its data with it.

Talk to us

Talk to us

Start a conversation.

Start wherever is most useful: a look at the software, a pilot on one of your closed deals, or a due diligence questionnaire answered in writing. Anything you share is kept confidential, and we're happy to sign an NDA first.

ORCA is based in Glasgow and has been in daily production use for several years. We are a small, founder-led team.

Or email us at hello@orca-crm.com.

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