We believe every deal team deserves a world-class data room

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 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.