Meeting in NY Leads to dealcloser + Ruby Datum M&A Partnership (Updated)

Transaction management system dealcloser has formally partnered with Ruby Datum, the virtual data room (VDR) company, to provide a broader and joined up offering for M&A deals. Nick Watson, founder of the VDR company told Artificial Lawyer the two companies’ teams had got together at a bar in New York during Legal Week and talks had progressed from there.

The companies said that the integration of the two cloud-based companies, along with dealcloser’s ‘imminent release of transaction templates and document automation’, now provides legal professionals with a ‘complete, seamless platform to manage and process transactions from start to finish’.

They added that ‘powered by Ruby Datum, dealcloser’s virtual data rooms will have the same look and feel as the dealcloser application, ensuring a seamless translation between both platforms’. The end result is what they are calling the ‘complete M&A experience’.

Ruby Datum is based in the UK and started back in 2015. It recently completed a fundraise via crowdfunding. Meanwhile, dealcloser is based in Canada and started in 2017, its investors include Bryce Catalyst. The deal platform also has integrations with Net Documents, iManage and Clio.

Ruby Datum describes itself as ‘a secure virtual data room platform that takes a fresh, innovative approach with its features and has won the support of leading innovators and investors alike. It offers a highly customizable, brandable interface for document collaboration with dedicated developers on hand to build a smooth flow of data from and to other tech platforms’.

This site also asked Watson at Ruby Datum some more about the partnership.

– Why have you done this deal?

‘Dealcoser has a great user interface, as does ours. The smooth flow of data between various applications is essential. Many legal tech applications can benefit from a virtual data room, or document collaboration and management platform sitting behind them.

– How did the deal come about? Who approached who?

We were introduced [ by Cosmonauts ] at the bar during Legal Week in New York. As we started talking the need to collaborate immediately made sense on both sides.

– Why didn’t you just merge?

Transactional management platforms are the client’s preference, and different parties will want to bring their own tools into the deal. By limiting users to just one option, we cut off a large part of the market. Merging would do just that.’

And in a statement, Amir Reshef, CEO, dealcloser, concluded: ‘Data rooms are something that we have been wanting to deliver to our customers for quite some time. dealcloser data rooms powered by Ruby Datum gives our M&A users full-access to custom, secure virtual data rooms, allowing our users to receive their clients’ data quickly and efficiently. We expect this partnership with Ruby Datum to be a huge benefit to our current and future users.’

It is certainly a partnership that makes sense and hopefully will make life easier for the clients by offering a joined up offering for deal management and VDR needs.