We believe every deal team deserves a world-class data room.
Peony is a virtual data room built for the teams that move deals forward — M&A advisors, founders raising capital, PE funds managing portfolios, and the lawyers and bankers who support them.
Our story
Peony started in 2021 as an online file operating system — a better way to store, organize, and share documents. We built a robust foundation for file management and security from day one, learning what teams actually need when sensitive documents are on the line.
By 2023, a pattern emerged. The teams using Peony the most were deal teams: startup founders sharing pitch decks with VCs, M&A advisors running sell-side processes, PE funds managing portfolio data rooms, and law firms exchanging diligence materials. They needed more than file sharing — they needed a purpose-built data room with granular permissions, page-level analytics, NDA gating, and audit trails.
So we built it. Peony became a full virtual data room with enterprise-grade security, page-level analytics, AI-powered document extraction, e-signatures, and Smart Q&A workflows — all at a fraction of what legacy vendors charge.
Today, Peony is trusted by 4,300+ teams including Y Combinator startups, boutique M&A advisory firms, independent sponsors, venture capital and private equity funds, commercial real estate professionals, biotech companies, and law firms. Funds managing over $18.8 billion in assets run their data rooms on Peony.
Who uses Peony
M&A Advisors & Investment Banks
Sell-side and buy-side data rooms with granular permissions, Q&A workflows, and detailed audit logs.
Private Equity & Independent Sponsors
Fund administration, LP reporting, portfolio monitoring, and continuation vehicle data rooms.
Venture Capital
Deal flow management, portfolio company data rooms, and LP communications with page-level tracking.
Startups & Founders
Fundraising data rooms with investor engagement tracking, pitch deck analytics, and NDA-gated access.
Law Firms
Secure document exchange for due diligence, litigation, and regulatory filings with full audit trails.
Commercial Real Estate
Property transaction data rooms for acquisitions, dispositions, and joint ventures.
Biotech & Pharma
Secure sharing for clinical trial data, intellectual property, and regulatory submissions.
Sales Teams
Share proposals and pitch decks with branded pages, viewer tracking, and engagement analytics.
What makes Peony different
Set up a data room in 5 minutes
Legacy vendors take days or weeks to provision. Peony data rooms are live in minutes — upload your documents, set permissions, share the link. AI Rooms auto-classify files into folders and flag missing documents.
Enterprise security, startup pricing
SOC 2-ready infrastructure, AES-256 encryption, dynamic watermarks, screenshot protection, NDA-gated access, and two-factor authentication. Plans start free — Pro is $20/admin/month, Business is $40/admin/month. That is 99% less than legacy providers like Datasite.
AI that works on your documents
AI Document Extraction lets you ask natural language questions across every file in your data room and get cited answers with exact page numbers. Smart Q&A automates the diligence Q&A workflow — AI drafts answers, your team reviews and approves before sending.
Analytics that show you who is engaged
Page-level analytics tell you exactly which pages each viewer read and how long they spent — not just that someone opened the link. Track viewer engagement across your entire deal process.
The team behind Peony
Deqian Jia, Co-founder
Deqian studied Philosophy and Physics at Oxford, then spent a brief stint in M&A at Barclays early in his career — enough to see firsthand how broken data rooms were. Clunky interfaces, opaque pricing, weeks of setup for a single deal. He went on to build products across AI, operating systems, file management, and document security, including a note-taking app that 15% of Oxford signed up for.
Peony is where those two threads meet: a builder who obsesses over file systems, security, and product craft, applied to an industry he first encountered inside an investment bank. Deqian leads engineering and product at Peony.
Sean Yu, Co-founder
Sean brings the investor's perspective to Peony. He started his career with a brief M&A stint at Nomura before moving into venture capital at Backed VC, where he evaluated early-stage European startups. He later joined Target Global, working on growth equity, late-stage, and secondary transactions across their portfolio.
Alongside Peony, Sean raised $2.1M for his previous company Gingercontrol and has advised multiple companies through their fundraising — including a SaaS business now running at $20M ARR and Lucida Capital, a hedge fund and market maker with $35M in assets under management. When Peony writes about investors, fundraising, or deal advisors, that perspective is first-hand.
In a fitting full-circle moment, Backed VC — the fund Sean worked at earlier in his career — is now one of Peony's investors. At Peony, Sean leads relationships with M&A advisors, VCs, independent sponsors, and growth-stage funds.
A team that knows deals
Between the two founders, Peony covers both sides of the deal lifecycle. Deqian brings the builder's lens — document security, file systems, AI, and the early M&A exposure at Barclays that showed him what deal teams actually need. Sean brings the investor's lens — venture capital at Backed, growth equity and secondaries at Target Global, and a short M&A stint at Nomura early in his career.
That combination shapes everything about how Peony works. When a PE fund asks for a continuation vehicle data room, a founder needs investor-ready analytics, or an M&A advisor runs a sell-side process, we are not guessing what they need — we have sat in those seats.
With team members across the US, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, Peony provides 24/7 support coverage. Wherever your deal team is, we are available.
Peony is headquartered in San Francisco, CA with a registered office at 86–90 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4NE, UK.
Backed by
Peony is backed by investors who have built and scaled category-defining companies:
Matt Clifford
Co-founder of Entrepreneur First. Chairperson of the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA), UK.
Charlie Songhurst
Former Head of Strategy at Microsoft. One of the most active angel investors globally.
Backed VC
Early-stage venture capital firm backing exceptional European founders.
Possible Ventures
Venture fund investing in transformative technology companies.
Compliance and certifications
Get in touch
Phone: +1 (808) 255-5691
Book a demo: lunacal.ai/team/peony-data-room