DealMaker adds three leaders as capital raised climbs 40%. September 2, 2026 DealMaker has appointed Q4 founder Darrell Heaps to its Board of Directors, Joy Watson Seon as Chief Customer Officer and Christopher Osborn as Chief Technology Officer as the investment technology company scales a platform that has helped issuers raise nearly $2.8 billion directly from individual investors. The New York-based company said capital raised through its platform has increased 40% year over year, while funded investments are up more than 35%. Since its founding in 2018, DealMaker has powered more than 1,000 offerings, providing technology for investor acquisition, compliant offering execution, payments and shareholder management. The three appointments strengthen different parts of the business as DealMaker handles greater transaction activity. Heaps adds capital markets and company-building experience at the board level, Watson Seon will consolidate several customer-facing functions, and Osborn will oversee the company's technology organization and its move toward AI-supported engineering. "DealMaker is entering its next phase with real momentum: capital raised through our platform is up 40% year over year and funded investments are up over 35%," CEO and co-founder Rebecca Kacaba said. "Darrell, Joy and Christopher bring the experience we need to build on that growth, deepen the value we deliver to customers and scale the technology powering this market." Heaps founded Q4 Inc. in 2006 and developed the business into a capital markets technology platform now used by approximately half of the S&P 500. As CEO, he led Q4 through venture financing, its 2021 initial public offering on the Toronto Stock Exchange and a subsequent take-private transaction. He currently serves as Q4's Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer. His appointment gives DealMaker a director with nearly two decades of experience building technology that connects companies with investors and supports capital markets workflows. "Technology has transformed how public companies connect with investors, and we are now seeing a similar shift in private markets as companies seek more direct relationships with a broader investor base," Heaps said. Watson Seon joins as DealMaker reorganizes Marketing Services, Account Management and Investor Services into a unified customer organization. As Chief Customer Officer, she will lead those functions with a focus on issuer outcomes and supporting larger and more sophisticated companies using the platform. She brings more than 20 years of experience building and restructuring customer organizations. Most recently, Watson Seon held senior leadership positions at Lightspeed Commerce and Top Hat, with earlier experience at Salesforce and League. At Lightspeed, she served as Senior Vice President of Global Customer Experience and led customer experience for the company's global retail business during a period of growth and operational change. Osborn will take responsibility for DealMaker's engineering and technology organization as the company works to make AI a more integrated part of how its platform is developed and operated. He brings 30 years of experience across internet infrastructure, financial technology, advertising technology, education technology and health technology. Most recently, Osborn served as Chief Technology Officer at Voxy, where he developed the company's patented AI-integrated language acquisition platform. He also expanded Voxy's engineering organization fivefold during a period in which revenue grew tenfold. At DealMaker, his mandate will include evolving the business into what the company describes as an AI-native engineering organization. The operational focus is on scaling the systems behind a platform that must coordinate investor acquisition, payments, regulatory requirements and shareholder management as offering volumes increase. DealMaker provides infrastructure for companies seeking to raise capital directly from individual investors rather than relying exclusively on traditional institutional fundraising channels. Its technology supports Regulation CF, Regulation A+ and other offering structures. That model requires multiple parts of the capital-raising process to operate within a coordinated workflow, from finding potential investors and processing investments to executing compliant offerings and maintaining shareholder records. The leadership additions come as DealMaker looks to scale that infrastructure alongside increasing transaction activity. With nearly $2.8 billion raised through the platform since 2018, the company's next phase will center on expanding issuer support, strengthening its underlying technology and managing higher investment volumes while maintaining the compliance workflows required for online capital offerings.

Retail capital-raising software provider DealMaker eyes further acquisitions - CEO. 24th August 2026 07:05 PM By Deborah Balshem * Considers US targets with investor-relations or AI capabilities * Revenue tops USD 60m, targets USD 100m within two years * Gained its first institutional venture-capital backer last year DealMaker, a provider of retail capital-raising software, continues to look at acquisitions alongside a primary focus on organic growth, co-founder and CEO Rebecca Kacaba said. The company remains flexible on size, Kacaba said, looking at targets with roughly USD 1m-USD 20m in revenue and investor relations tools or generative artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. Having relocated its headquarters to New York from Toronto in April 2025, DealMaker is now focused on US-based targets. In July 2025, it acquired Rally On Media, a New York-based video creative agency, a longtime partner, according to Kacaba. Kacaba told this news service in January 2025 that DealMaker was weighing acquisitions ahead of a potential sale or initial public offering (IPO) in two to three years, and could raise capital opportunistically in the interim. Asked about exit timing for this report, she declined to comment. DealMaker has been backed by its founders and early investors since 2018. In September, it hired Ryan Levenberg as CFO. Levenberg was previously CFO of investor relations platform Q4 Inc., which he took public on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2021. Kacaba said the appointment does not signal a move toward a listing. In November 2025, DealMaker raised USD 20m in equity and debt, led by Information Venture Partners (IVP), its first institutional venture-capital partner, alongside existing lender CIBC Innovation Banking. The debt portion refinanced and expanded the CIBC facility, while DealMaker chose IVP, Kacaba said, for its guidance and its record of three to four unicorn exits. Q4 founder and chairman Darrell Heaps also joined DealMaker's board, adding capital-markets experience. Kacaba said DealMaker generated more than USD 60m in revenue in its fiscal year ended 31 March 2026 and remains on track to reach more than USD 100m within the next two years. Revenue is a mix of recurring and transactional sales, and the business continues to operate at breakeven by design. DealMaker provides white-label technology that lets companies run their own online securities offerings - under Regulation A+, Regulation CF, and Regulation D - raising capital directly from retail investors. It handles investor onboarding, identity and compliance checks, payment processing, and investor relations management, and layers on AI-driven marketing to attract and convert investors. Its affiliated broker-dealer, DealMaker Securities, acts as broker-dealer of record. A dedicated division, DealMaker Sports, launched in September 2025, applies the platform to fan-led ownership raises for teams, leagues, and athletes. The platform has more than 2m retail investors, Kacaba said, with an average investment of USD 3,600 and more than USD 2.8bn in capital processed, a figure she expects to approach USD 3bn by the end of this year. Kacaba and Chief Revenue Officer Mat Goldstein co-founded DealMaker. In 2022, the company acquired digital investor acquisition firm Ridge Growth Agency and the FundAmerica book of business from Prime Trust. Prior to its latest raise, DealMaker had raised tens of millions of dollars. Investors include the Canadian Securities Exchange, Mawer Investment Management, and Conconi Growth Partners. Other retail investment marketplaces and portals include StartEngine, Wefunder, Republic, and Netcapital. The biggest recent move in the space, according to Kacaba, has been Robinhood's push to give its 25m retail investors access to private companies through two publicly traded funds, listed in March 2026 and August 2026. SpaceX allocated roughly a fifth of its IPO to retail investors - more than double the 5% to 10% retail share of a traditional offering - and OpenAI and Anthropic, both moving toward IPOs, could do the same, Kacaba said, with OpenAI having signaled it wants a sizable retail allocation of its own. Recent deals in the private-markets and capital-raising space this year include Securitize's SPAC merger at a USD 1.25bn valuation; StartEngine's acquisition of Vinovest for a reported USD 14m in stock; Charles Schwab's USD 660m purchase of Forge Global; and Morgan Stanley's acquisition of EquityZen. In 2025, Republic acquired Canadian-listed INX Digital for up to USD 60m - a 457% premium. DealMaker has approximately 180 employees and additional offices in Los Angeles, Toronto, and Medellín, Colombia. The company uses law firm Dentons and accounting firm BDO.