Dakota Revenue (2024)

Dakota's SaaS database platform generated approximately $5 million in annualized revenue as of mid-2021, up from roughly $2.5 million a year earlier, representing a doubling of the run rate over twelve months. Gui Costin confirmed the figures directly, noting that customer count grew from 200 to 402 over the same period.

Dakota's SaaS platform had 402 paying customer firms as of mid-2021, up from 200 approximately one year earlier. The base price is $12,500 per year for two user licenses, with each additional seat priced at $1,000 per year. The contract structure is an annual license.

The largest single account held 27 seats. Total seats across the platform were approximately 1,200 as of the interview, implying an average of roughly three seats per account. The average contract value was $12,500, consistent with the base two-seat license, suggesting most expansion revenue comes from add-on seats at renewal rather than large multi-seat deals at signing.

The first paying SaaS customer was a healthcare firm called Plavati, which signed on at the April 2019 launch. The earlier content platform, launched in June 2018, had 14 paying customers at $5,750 each before being discontinued in favor of the database model.

Dakota's SaaS business sells annual software and data licenses to investment fundraising professionals. The base package is $12,500 per year for two seats, with additional seats at $1,000 per year each. The model is purely subscription-based with no marketplace take rate on the SaaS side.

The separate outsourced fundraising business operates on a commission model. Dakota earns between 7 percent and 20 percent of the management fees generated on capital it raises for clients. Costin illustrated the math using a 50-basis-point management fee: on $40 billion raised, that implies roughly $200 million in total fees, of which Dakota would receive between 7 percent and 20 percent, paid on a trailing commission basis as fees are earned.

Key operating metrics for the SaaS platform as of mid-2021: gross logo churn was approximately 3 percent annually, and net dollar retention was 115 percent, meaning expansion from additional seat purchases more than offset churn. The company was not profitable as of the interview, with Costin stating the priority was maintaining data quality and product completeness. Dakota is fully bootstrapped with no outside capital raised. The platform database covers 4,500 investor accounts and 13,000 contacts. Costin declined to provide a formal valuation for the business.

Dakota employed 45 people in total as of August 2021. The sales team consisted of 11 representatives, each targeting five demos per week, implying a target of roughly 55 demos per week across the team. Each sales representative was expected to close between 70 and 100 new contracts per year, which Costin equated to approximately $1.2 million in new annualized recurring revenue per rep per year.

The engineering team consisted of a single engineer. Costin noted the company relies heavily on Salesforce as its underlying technology infrastructure, which helps explain the lean technical headcount relative to the overall team size.