Pitchwise is a document-sharing and virtual data room platform that enables African founders, dealmakers, and teams to share pitch decks, data rooms, and other sensitive documents through a single link.
Built by Bantaba, a Stockholm-based company founded by Gambian entrepreneur Lamin Darboe, Pitchwise allows startups to easily share relevant data with investors, and receive real-time alerts when a document is opened.
They also receive slide-level analytics like time spent per slide, completion rate, and return visits; granular access permissions; email whitelisting; and dynamic watermarking. “It’s positioned as a founder-friendly cost alternative to tools like DocSend with comparable functionality at a fraction of the price. The platform is GDPR and CCPA compliant, with documents encrypted in transit and at rest,” Darboe told Disrupt Africa.
While fundraising is a core use case, Pitchwise is also used to power M&A transactions, sales pitches and due diligence processes. Beyond founders, the platform is used by VC firms, investment platforms, family offices, and boutique advisory firms for use cases like LP reporting and due diligence, and sales enablement, amongst others. “We built Pitchwise around two gaps we saw in the market – founders’ need to have visibility and security on the fundraising process without having to break the bank,” Darboe said. “Founders want to know what actually happens to a document after they share it – who opened it, what was read, and when to follow up, instead of sending it into the dark. And they want confidence that their information won’t end up circulating beyond the people they intended to share it with.” The second risk mentioned, he said, isn’t hypothetical. “In a case reported recently, college social app Fizz accused its investor of sharing its confidential investor deck and financials with a rival app,” said Darboe.
“That’s exactly the kind of scenario founders want to avoid when they share a data room or confidential documents, knowing who has access and being able to control or revoke it.”
As noted, enterprise platforms like Ideals and DocSend already offer that kind of visibility and control, but they are built and priced for large, well-funded companies running M&A and due diligence at scale, not the African founder trying to close a seed or Series A round. “Pitchwise is building for the other end of that market – the same quality, security, and visibility enterprise buyers already get, priced for the startups and smaller teams the rest of the market has largely left behind,” Darboe said.
Over 5,000 companies are using the platform, with over 15,000 documents shared and more than 60,000 tracked link views.“Founders using Pitchwise have closed rounds raising tens of millions of dollars in funding, and the platform has also been used to power M&A transactions in Africa and Europe. Startups have also used Pitchwise’s insights and presentation feature to win pitch competitions, putting the platform’s analytics to work in refining how they present to judges and investors,” said Darboe.
“Pitchwise is positioned to serve founders in all markets, as the pain point being addressed is shared across the global founder community. Expansion plans centre on deepening reach in Africa, North America, and Europe.”
The startup runs a tiered subscription model, with a free plan for basic document sharing with analytics, a starter plan at US$13 a month, and a pro plan at US$24 per month, with annual pricing available.
“We are already servicing hundreds of paying customers across these different paid plans,” said Darboe.