Close hardware deals without burning runway on a legacy VDR.
The data room purpose-built for hardware founders, industrial M&A teams, aerospace primes, and contract manufacturers. Share CAD assemblies, BOMs, factory walkthrough videos, and ITAR-controlled drawings with enterprise-grade security.Set up in under 5 minutes. Median setup time across all Peony customers: 4 minutes 19 seconds.
24/7 dedicated support for hardware M&A and roll-ups
Why is manufacturing document sharing still broken in 2026?
Hardware teams share CAD assemblies, factory walkthrough videos, BOMs with supplier pricing, ITAR-controlled drawings, and patent filings — across email, Dropbox, Google Drive, and SharePoint. One leaked drawing, one captured BOM screenshot, one factory video on the wrong YouTube channel can derail an eight- or nine-figure deal.
CAD and factory video files are massive
A single SOLIDWORKS assembly is 1–3 GB. A 4K factory walkthrough is 5–20 GB. Legacy VDRs cap storage and choke on uploads; DocSend cuts off at 10 GB on the highest plan.
ITAR/EAR exposure on every drawing
Aerospace and defense suppliers handle export-controlled drawings on every deal. Generic file-sharing tools cannot prove jurisdictional access controls or produce DDTC-ready audit logs.
BOM and supplier pricing leak risk
A leaked BOM with supplier names and tiered pricing is a gift to a competitor. Generic cloud drives have no per-page watermarking, no screenshot blocking, and no per-bidder identity tagging.
Multi-bidder M&A without leak control
Industrial roll-ups and divestitures involve multiple PE and strategic bidders. Without per-bidder watermarks and granular permissions, one consultant leak compromises the whole process.
How does Peony handle CAD, BOM, factory video, and ITAR drawings in one data room?
Peony gives you enterprise-grade security, AI-powered document intelligence, and complete audit trails — purpose-built for the file types and workflows hardware deals actually involve.
Drag-and-drop a 3 GB SOLIDWORKS assembly. Or a 20 GB factory walkthrough.
Peony processes large CAD assemblies and 4K factory videos server-side. No browser timeouts, no laptop fans spinning, no 10 GB DocSend cap. The large-file data room is the same engine that powers our CAD data room and video data room spokes.
Native CAD preview
Bidders preview SOLIDWORKS, Inventor, CATIA, NX, and STEP assemblies in-browser without installing CAD software. Watermarks render on the preview, not just on PDF exports.
4K factory video DRM
Stream factory walkthroughs and customer install footage with per-viewer watermarks, screenshot blocking, and per-second view analytics. Know which investor watched the full demo.
Unlimited storage on Business
No per-GB overage fees, no per-page caps, no surprise bills when a strategic acquirer's diligence team uploads 80 GB of cell test data on day three.
Watermarks, screenshot blocking, NDA gates — on every drawing.
Your BOMs, ITAR-controlled drawings, and IP filings deserve more than a password. Peony blocks screenshots on every page, stamps every view with dynamic watermarks showing the viewer's identity and timestamp, and requires NDA signatures before any document is visible. All on the Business plan at $40/admin/month.
Screenshot protection
Block screen captures of CAD assemblies, BOMs with supplier pricing, and ITAR-controlled drawings. Capture attempts are logged with viewer identity and timestamp.
Dynamic watermarks
Every page stamped with the viewer's identity, email, IP, and timestamp. If a drawing leaks, the watermark traces it back to the exact bidder, consultant, or auditor.
NDA-gated access
Require bidders, suppliers, or auditors to sign an NDA before any drawing, BOM, or supply contract is visible. Integrated e-signatures included on the Business plan.
Chat with your BOMs, supply contracts, and patent portfolio.
Stop digging through hundreds of PDFs. AI Extraction pulls clauses out of supplier MSAs, parses BOM line items, and reads patent claims. Smart Q&A lets bidders submit diligence questions, AI drafts answers from your documents, your team reviews, and approved responses are published — keeping your side in full control.
Ask questions across BOMs and contracts
AI retrieves answers with exact source references from your BOMs, supply contracts, quality manuals, and patent portfolio. No more 'where's the second-source clause' email chains.
Auto-indexing for hardware deal libraries
Auto-indexing on the Business plan classifies BOMs, drawings, test reports, customer contracts, and IP filings into a navigable index — no manual folder-by-folder organization.
Bidder Q&A on autopilot
Let AI draft responses to bidder questions about manufacturing capacity, supplier diversity, IP coverage, and compliance posture 24/7. Track what each bidder asks to refine deal positioning.
How do audit trails support ISO 9001, AS9100, and ITAR compliance?
Every view, download, NDA signature, and access change is timestamped, IP-stamped, and exportable. Page-level analytics show exactly which sections of your quality manuals and FAI packages an auditor or strategic reviewer focused on.
Page-by-page tracking
See which pages of your AS9100 procedures, FAI packages, or supplier corrective actions tier-1 auditors and PE diligence teams reviewed — and for how long.
Compliance-ready logs
Exportable audit trails with timestamps, IP addresses, and device details. Meet ISO 9001 record-keeping, AS9100 traceability, and ITAR/EAR access-tracking expectations on a single platform.
Granular access control
Give one tier-1 auditor access to their customer folder only, give a PE bidder access to the full M&A package, and give a lender access to the financial section — all from one data room with separate audit logs per party.
"Peony has been great for sharing documents with investors, employees, and customers. It's easy to use, good value, and new features are constantly being added. Definitely recommend!"
Ed Harris
Founder & CEO, Ligo Bio (YC S24)
How much does a manufacturing data room cost vs Datasite or Intralinks?
Mid-market industrial M&A typically takes 4–6 months from teaser to close. Here is the cost picture for a $50M industrial deal.
| Platform | Pricing model | Cost over 5 months |
|---|---|---|
| Peony Business | $40/admin/month, unlimited rooms, unlimited storage | ~$200 (1 admin) – $400 (2 admins) |
| Datasite | Per-deal, per-page, per-GB tiers | ~$15–35K per deal |
| Intralinks | Per-deal enterprise license | ~$15–30K per deal |
| Ideals | Per-page, per-user, per-deal | ~$10–25K per deal |
| Merrill | Per-deal enterprise | ~$15–30K per deal |
Pricing for legacy VDRs based on publicly reported industrial M&A engagements; ranges vary by data volume, bidder count, and deal value. See the full VDR pricing breakdown for sourcing.
Where else manufacturing teams use Peony
Manufacturing deals span CAD, video, and large technical files. Peony has dedicated landing surfaces for each.
CAD Data Room
SOLIDWORKS, Inventor, CATIA, NX, STEP. In-browser preview with watermarks.
Video Data Room
Factory walkthroughs, customer install footage, demo videos with per-viewer DRM.
Large-File Data Room
Multi-GB CAD assemblies, 4K video, technical archives. No browser timeouts.
Startups
Hardware seed and Series A fundraising. Cap table, financial model, IP, factory video.
Private Equity
Industrial roll-ups, LMM acquisitions, portfolio company divestitures. Unlimited rooms.
M&A
Sell-side and buy-side process management. Multi-bidder, per-bidder watermarks, full audit trails.
Manufacturing data room FAQ
Real questions from hardware founders, industrial corp dev, aerospace primes, and contract manufacturers.
I run a 25-person robotics startup raising a $25M Series A from Lux Capital — what do I put in my hardware data room beyond the deck?
For a 25-person robotics company at the Series A stage, your data room needs the deck, financial model, cap table, and IP filings — but it also needs the things hardware investors actually diligence: CAD assemblies for your core mechanical system, a 5–10 minute factory walkthrough video, BOM with supplier lead times, prototype test data, regulatory clearance status (FCC, CE, UL where relevant), and your patent portfolio with examiner office actions. Peony is the data room that handles all of these in one place — drag-and-drop a 2 GB SOLIDWORKS assembly or a 4K factory walkthrough and it processes server-side without melting your laptop. Page-level analytics tell you which investor watched the full demo video versus skipped to the financial model. Auto-indexing on the Business plan ($40/admin/month) classifies BOMs, drawings, test reports, and IP filings into a navigable index automatically. Compared to DocSend (10 GB max storage on the highest plan, no CAD preview, no video DRM), or Datasite (designed for $500M+ deals, $25K+ per transaction), Peony is the price-and-capability sweet spot for hardware teams between seed and Series B.
I lead corp dev at a $400M industrial holding company doing a roll-up of four PCB assembly shops — how do I run four parallel data rooms without a $30K per-deal VDR bill?
For a $400M industrial holding company running parallel acquisitions, each PCB shop needs its own data room with separate permission models — sellers should never see each other's documents, your diligence team should see all four side by side, and your lender should see the consolidated package. Peony Business ($40/admin/month) gives you unlimited data rooms on a single subscription, so running four parallel acquisitions costs the same as running one. Each room gets independent NDA gates, watermarks stamped with the specific bidder's identity, screenshot protection on quality manuals and AS9100 audits, and a separate audit log for ISO 9001 traceability. Compared to Datasite (typically $20–40K per deal for mid-market industrial M&A) or Intralinks (similar enterprise pricing), Peony cuts your VDR spend by over 95% on a four-shop roll-up while keeping every bidder isolated. Aggregate dashboard on the Business plan lets you see live engagement across all four rooms in one view.
I'm preparing an $800M aerospace tier-1 supplier divestiture with ITAR-controlled drawings — does Peony handle export-controlled documents and audit trails for compliance review?
Yes — for an $800M aerospace divestiture with ITAR/EAR-controlled drawings, the workflow needs three things: (1) restricted-access folders gated behind specific NDAs and access lists, (2) full audit trails showing every viewer, IP address, timestamp, and download for export-control review, (3) screenshot blocking and dynamic watermarks on every sensitive drawing so leaks can be traced. Peony Business ($40/admin/month) provides all three. Folder-level permissions let you isolate ITAR-controlled drawings from non-controlled corporate documents and grant access only to bidders whose export-compliance teams have completed your jurisdictional review. Watermarks stamp viewer identity plus timestamp on every page; screenshot protection blocks (and logs) capture attempts. Exportable audit logs satisfy DDTC and BIS recordkeeping expectations. Note: Peony provides the secure-distribution layer; you remain responsible for the underlying ITAR/EAR licensing decisions and export-classification work — same as you would with Datasite, Intralinks, or any VDR. For aerospace deals with classified content above CUI, defense primes typically use government-accredited environments instead, which is outside any commercial VDR's scope. Pure defense workflows are covered separately on the Peony defense data room page.
We're a 50-person EV battery hardware company raising a $40M Series B — investors want cell test data, thermal abuse tests, and patent details. How do we share without leaking IP?
For a 50-person EV battery Series B, your IP is the entire business — cell chemistry data, calendar life curves, thermal abuse and nail penetration test results, manufacturing process know-how, and the patent portfolio behind it. Sharing this on Google Drive or Dropbox is unacceptable; sharing it on a legacy VDR ($15K+ per deal) burns runway. Peony Business ($40/admin/month) gives you screenshot protection on every cell test report and abuse test video, dynamic watermarks tracing every page back to the specific investor, NDA gates that require an executed NDA before any document is visible, and link expiry so test data shared with a strategic for partnership review can be revoked when the conversation ends. AI-powered Smart Q&A on the Business plan lets you answer dozens of investor diligence questions through a workflow where investors submit questions, AI drafts answers from your documents, your team reviews, and approved responses are published — keeping you in full control of what gets disclosed.
I run quality at a contract manufacturer being audited by a tier-1 OEM — they want every ISO 9001, AS9100, and ITAR document for the past three years. How do I share without giving them access to other customers' files?
For a contract manufacturer facing a tier-1 OEM audit, the trap is exactly the one you described: you have to share three years of quality docs (ISO 9001 procedures, AS9100 records, ITAR compliance evidence, FAI reports, PPAP packages, supplier corrective actions) without exposing other customers' work or proprietary processes. Peony Business ($40/admin/month) solves this with folder-level permissions — create one folder per customer, grant the auditing OEM access only to their folder plus your shared quality system documents, and audit-log every view they perform. Screenshot protection prevents auditors from capturing internal process details to compare against your other customers' specs. Dynamic watermarks on FAI and PPAP packages tag every page with the auditor's identity. When the audit closes, link expiry and access revocation pull permission instantly. Page-level analytics also show you what they actually scrutinized — useful for your post-audit debrief.
Our consumer hardware DTC brand is selling to a strategic for ~$150M — what should the M&A data room contain that's different from a SaaS sale?
For a $150M consumer hardware DTC sale, the M&A data room looks materially different from a SaaS sale because the strategic is buying real-world supply chain, manufacturing, and brand IP — not just code and ARR. Beyond the standard package (financials, cap table, customer cohorts, churn, returns), you need: full BOM with supplier names and pricing tiers, factory walkthrough videos for each contract manufacturer, tooling ownership records, mold inventory, freight and tariff history, marketplace seller account health (Amazon, Shopify, retailer EDI feeds), IP filings (utility patents, design patents, trademarks, trade dress), product liability claim history, FCC/CE/Prop 65 compliance files, and customer review sentiment data. Peony handles all of this — including 5–20 GB factory video, 1–3 GB CAD assemblies, BOM spreadsheets, and patent PDFs — in one secure data room. Auto-indexing classifies the entire library, and AI-powered Q&A lets the strategic's diligence team ask natural-language questions like 'what's our gross margin trend by SKU since 2023' and get sourced answers with exact page references.
I'm 70 years old, my family CNC machining shop has 80 employees and ~$25M in revenue, and I'm selling to a lower-middle-market PE firm. What does a data room for an industrial family business sale look like — and how much does it cost?
For an 80-person CNC family business selling to LMM PE for $25M revenue, the data room needs to satisfy a buyer doing operational diligence on a real, physical business. That means: financials (5 years P&L, balance sheets, AR/AP aging, working capital schedule), customer concentration analysis (top 10 customers, multi-year revenue history), employee handbook and key-person identification, machine inventory with capacity utilization, ISO/AS9100 certifications, environmental compliance (RCRA, air permits), real estate (deed or lease), and customer contracts. Peony Business at $40 per admin per month — one or two admins is plenty for your seller-side team — covers the full process from teaser through closing for under $300 total across the typical 5-month deal cycle. Compared to Datasite (commonly $15–25K for an LMM industrial deal), that's a ~95% reduction. Setup takes under 5 minutes; your CFO or M&A advisor can drag-and-drop the entire deal package, gate it behind an NDA, and start sending personalized links to PE firms the same afternoon.
We're a $2B auto OEM divesting a non-core supplier division — drawings, BOMs, supply contracts, capacity plans. How do we run a multi-bidder process without leak risk?
For a $2B auto OEM divestiture with multiple strategic and PE bidders chasing the same supplier division, leak risk is structural — every bidder hires consultants, the consultants leak, and a single screenshot of a customer roster or pricing tier ends up at a competitor. Peony Business ($40/admin/month) gives you per-bidder personalized links, watermarks stamped with the specific bidder's identity and timestamp, screenshot protection that blocks and logs capture attempts on every drawing, BOM, and supply contract, and folder-level permissions so each bidder sees only what they're entitled to at their stage of the process. When you advance one bidder to confirmatory diligence, a single click expands their access; when you eliminate another, link expiry pulls everything instantly. Page-level analytics show you which bidder is actually engaging with the financial model versus skimming — useful for prioritizing follow-up calls. Compared to Datasite (purpose-built for this exact scenario but at $30–50K for a $2B divestiture), Peony delivers the same security layer at a fraction of the cost.
I'm a 12-person industrial IoT startup at the seed stage — investors want to walk our factory floor and see the device on real production lines. How do I do that remotely?
For a 12-person industrial IoT seed round, remote factory walkthroughs are the highest-conviction artifact in your data room — investors who watch a 3-minute video of your sensor running on a customer's production line convert at multiples of investors who only see the deck. Peony lets you upload 4K factory walkthrough videos, on-site customer install footage, and dashboard screen recordings with no per-file size limit on the Business plan ($40/admin/month) and unlimited storage. Page-level analytics tell you which investors watched the full video — that's your real diligence-to-term-sheet leading indicator. Watermarks tag every video with the viewer's identity, and screenshot protection blocks frame captures of customer factories. Compared to YouTube unlisted (no security, no analytics, no NDA) or DocSend (10 GB cap, weak video handling), Peony is the data room actually built for hardware demo content.
How much does a manufacturing data room cost for a $50M industrial acquisition?
For a $50M industrial acquisition data room, Peony Business is $40 per admin per month with unlimited data rooms, unlimited storage, AI-powered Q&A, screenshot protection, dynamic watermarks, NDA gates, full audit trails, and page-level analytics. Mid-market industrial M&A deals typically take 4–6 months from teaser to close, so total cost is roughly $200–$300 across the entire deal — or $400 if you keep it open through post-close integration. Datasite, Intralinks, Merrill, and Ideals commonly price the same scope at $15–35K per deal for $50M industrial transactions, depending on data volume and number of bidders. Peony has parity on the security and audit features that mid-market PE and corporate dev teams actually require (SOC 2, GDPR, dynamic watermarks, screenshot blocking, NDA gates, granular permissions, exportable audit logs), so the cost gap is not a feature gap. The free plan exists for testing; the Pro plan ($20/admin/month) covers smaller teams; but for a $50M acquisition, Business is the anchor tier because that's where AI-powered Q&A, screenshot protection, dynamic watermarks, and NDA gates live.
Secure your IP. Close hardware deals faster.
Join hardware founders, industrial corp dev teams, aerospace suppliers, and contract manufacturers using Peony to share CAD, BOMs, factory video, and ITAR drawings — securely and at a fraction of legacy VDR cost.
24/7 dedicated support for hardware M&A and roll-ups