Suddenly it was all clear to me, I looked up at my brother and uttered my first words: “data room intelligence”

So AI Intelligence for M&A data rooms? How did you come up with this idea?

MVL: When I was a baby my family thought there was something wrong with me because I didn't say my first words until I was quite old. The truth is, I knew exactly how to express myself even from a very young age. I just didn't want to waste my first words on some meaningless mundane statements.

Then one day, while out camping with the family, my brother and I were building a stone dam. When I put in the last stone, we unleashed the water and I saw the murky, still water turn into fresh, flowing water; suddenly it was all clear to me. I looked up at my brother and uttered my very first words: “data room intelligence”. My family understood instantly: I meant business.

MDK: I knew Michiel (VL) from our time together at ML6 where he was our general counsel. When I heard the story about his first words, I thought he was crazy. In spring 2024 we started talking more and more about his vision for Duely and by now I am one hundred percent positive that indeed he is.

Interesting. And what exactly does Duely do?

MVL: Duely takes on key aspects of data room preparation for sell-side advisors — investment bankers and corporate finance professionals — during M&A transactions. Investment bankers & corporate finance teams are known to work extremely long hours with recent reports stating frequent 110-hour weeks (reported in Financial Times on 15 May 2025). A good chunk of that time goes into data room preparation; organising, redacting & renaming documents delivered by the selling party and analysing which information is still missing. That work is slow, tedious and unfulfilling - quite similar actually to MDK's pingpong game.

MDK: Ouch! But indeed, Duely supports the advisor in taking on most of the data room preparation work by use of its specifically designed AI Agents which offer content organising, sanity checking and a way of interacting with the information in the data room on different levels (from document-level, beyond folder-level to data room level). Crucially, Duely's functionality is offered exclusively via API, allowing integration with existing platforms so advisors can continue working in their familiar, trusted environments.

MVL: Bottomline: Duely assists the advisor in preparing the data room so they can focus on the more complex and important strategic work. I'm afraid that even with Duely, investment bankers and corporate finance experts will still work crazy hours, but at least that time won't be spent on data room preparation.

“[...] even with Duely, investment bankers and corporate finance experts will still work crazy hours, but at least that time won't be spent on data room preparation.”

Is founding Duely a childhood dream?

MDK: I think I was about 12 years old when my parents sat me down to watch my first M&A deal preparation documentary. The raw footage of all those intelligent, educated people spending days/weeks manually sifting through hundreds of documents sent shivers down my spine. Even today, it's hard to talk about. I didn't sleep at all those first few nights. Over the years, the horror turned into curiosity: “Could it be? Surely, there must be a better way?” I would have to wait over 15 years to get my answer—when I met MVL at the ML6 offices.

MVL: I think the dam-story should answer this question; it wasn't really a dream for me, it was literally the only way forward. Note that some of my family or friends might tell you instead that my childhood dream was to become a professional soccer player, given that they have no written statement in hand, I think we're safe to ignore them.

And so Michiel, isn't it annoying that you both have the same name?

MVL: Is that a question for me? Or for MDK?

I see. Back to Duely, why exactly are you offering the Duely tooling over API?

MDK: Our features are made available via API because it allows us to strengthen existing platforms, rather than adding yet another tool to the already complex M&A process. As AI engineers, our focus is on maximising the performance of our data room intelligence engine, while existing platforms are best positioned to determine how that intelligence is best delivered to their users.

MVL: I really hope what Michiel just said is true—but there's still 1% of me that worries he just doesn't know how to build a user-friendly frontend and is sticking to what he's best at as an AI engineer.

MDK: Please note that MVL has no technical background and by consequence has no idea what he's talking about. That being said, offering the Duely features over API was a recommendation from our ML6 co-founder Matthias Feys (CTO at ML6), who is widely regarded as a tech wizard. So it feels good to just blindly follow his advice.

MVL: Which is a fail-safe approach anyway: if we don't become extremely successful, we can fully blame him without taking any responsibility. This way we keep our ego intact for any future delusional endeavours.

What stage are you at today and what is the ambition for Duely?

MVL: We've successfully integrated our API into the first environment, unlocking value for our first end-users. We're currently working with investment banks and corporate finance teams on deal data to get the performance to the level they need to confidently use Duely in their next deals.

MDK: The roadmap is ambitious but clear: rapidly bring Duely to M&A professionals around the world, ultimately transforming the deal-making process as a whole.