Drooms, the virtual data room provider, has recently strengthened its expertise in the field of lifecycle asset management with the acquisition of DealMarket. Here, Jan Hoffmeister tells us more about the purchase and Drooms’ plans to utilise its new-found assets going forward.
Drooms (drooms.com) is the leading provider of secure cloud solutions in Europe. The software specialist allows companies controlled access to confidential corporate data across company boundaries. Confidential business processes such as commercial real estate sales, mergers & acquisitions, NPL transactions and Board communications are handled securely, transparently and efficiently by Drooms. Leading global real estate companies, consultancy firms, law firms and corporations such as the METRO GROUP, Evonik, Morgan Stanley, JLL, JP Morgan, CBRE, Rewe and UBS are among Drooms’ client base.
Co-founder and chairman of Drooms, Jan Hoffmeister, tells us more about the firm and its areas of specialism.
“At Drooms, we specialise in providing data rooms for due diligence processes in transactions. However, we know from experience that due diligence is only one (decisive) aspect of a long and complex process with several parties and a great deal of expertise involved. Failing to prepare properly for due diligence processes can be damaging for both sides of a transaction, can waste time and money for everybody involved, and can eventually even hinder a good deal.”
“With the first virtual data room in Europe in 2001, we contributed to radically transforming the due diligence process. Traditionally, the term ‘data room’ referred to the physical rooms that served as the document repositories where M&A transactions took place. The costs involved were considerable as well as the time required for the whole process. The digitisation of the process meant: faster due diligence, improved efficiency, ability to execute from remote locations. Since then, Drooms is a key player in bringing the newest technology into the due diligence market. With the release of Drooms NXG at the end of 2016, Drooms introduced for the first time artificial intelligence and automation technology into its virtual data room.”
To support investors in preparing for due diligence with the aid of thorough reporting, Drooms decided to acquire DealMarket, a Swiss FinTech company specialising in the management of complex investment projects. Thanks to DealMarket, investors have a tool where they can set up customised deal flows, enabling them to organise and monitor every step of their investment activities until the moment of truth, i.e. due diligence.
Jan explains more about DealMarket and the rationale behind the acquisition.
“Deal making is always a complex process. DealMarket’s Deal Flow management tool makes the investment project a bit less complex by allowing information and data storage on the DealMarket platform. Investors can manage how they view deals, find them and approach them throughout the deal making process.”
“Now, what increases the complexity is often the finalisation process, i.e. the due diligence, which is executed in a virtual data room. The due diligence process can add its difficulties and drag the investment process on. With Drooms’ virtual data room, the documentation management as well as the Q&A happen on one highly safe platform. This saves time since you don’t need to send documents back and forth or upload them to several platforms. Speed is of the essence when it comes to deal making – too often investments and mergers can fall through simply because the process took too long to finish. The Instant Access Technology Drooms uses guarantees documents can be processed and accessed without unnecessary delay in the process.”
Overall, the addition of Drooms helps clients with the latter stages of the investment cycle. While DealMarket helped you choose the right deals, Drooms’ data rooms make it easy to finalise the acquisition.
“With the acquisition of DealMarket we are closing in on our target of managing the entire lifecycle of valuable assets. DealMarket has done some excellent development work in this area, developing an innovative, industry-tailored solution in the process. In strengthening the Drooms team with the experience and expertise of DealMarket employees, we are now in a position to offer even more services from a single source.”
With regards to the future, Jan tells us how Drooms intends to stay one step ahead of the game.
“We have a large team of developers on-site,” he explains. “As the core of our company is its technology, they work every day to make sure Drooms NXG is a carrier of the newest technological developments. For instance, we have simplified one of the most demanding and at the same time crucial tasks within due diligence: the Q&A process. Thanks to our Q&A tool, customers can set up even the most sophisticated process completely by themselves. A feature that legal experts especially appreciate is the Findings Manager, the module allowing for the assessment of risks and opportunities inherent to a deal.
The feature is based on powerful smart content analytics. And our developers work to offer the greatest functionalities to speed up and improve a deal. The bottom line is this: if intelligent machines can help improve due diligence, then all the stakeholders will be able to spend their time executing strategic and meaningful tasks.”
Company: Drooms
Name: Jan Hoffmeister
Email: [email protected]
Web Address: www.drooms.com
