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The multi-entity CRM for holding companies, portfolios, and business units.
Ahoy runs one AI-native CRM across every company in your group or portfolio: an isolated workspace for each operating company or business unit, roll-up reporting for the holding company or fund, and agents that capture the work and prepare the next action in every pipeline - with one tap of human judgement before anything goes out. Most CRMs were built to remember one company. Ahoy was built to act across all of yours.
Why groups outgrow single-company CRMs
Every acquisition closes and brings its own CRM - or none - and every new business unit inherits whatever the last one used. Groups usually answer with one of three moves, and all three fail the same way.
Cram every entity into one shared instance. Permissions turn brittle, one company's stage definitions collide with another's, and a central admin team ends up owning everyone's mess. The entities that needed separation get entanglement instead.
Let each company keep its own CRM. The group flies blind: five systems, five definitions of "qualified," and board reporting assembled by hand from exports. Nobody trusts the consolidated number because nobody can trace it.
Standardize by mandate. Pick an incumbent, force the migration - and watch adoption die in companies where nobody has time for data entry, which is all of them.
The quiet failure under all three is the same: a traditional CRM only reflects what someone types in. Operating companies rarely have RevOps teams, and their reps will not maintain a system by hand. Group-level numbers end up only as good as the least diligent company's data entry.
How Ahoy runs a group of companies
A workspace per operating company or business unit. Each opco or unit gets its own isolated workspace: its own pipelines, its own data model, its own roles and permissions. Isolation is multi-tenant by design, not a permissions workaround. Nothing leaks between brands or entities that must stay separate - legally, competitively, or simply because they sell different things to different people.
One live view for the group. Cross-workspace roll-ups give the holding company pipeline across every entity on shared definitions, without a spreadsheet layer between the numbers and the board. One master agreement, per-workspace billing, organization-level governance with SAML SSO.
Data that maintains itself, everywhere. In every workspace, Ahoy's agents capture emails, calls, and meetings automatically, keep records current, and prepare the next action for one-tap approval. Group reporting stops depending on portfolio-company data discipline, because there is no data entry left to skip.
A playbook that survives contact with each company. Deploy the group's sales motion as the standard - stages, definitions, follow-up cadence - and let each operating company adapt where its business genuinely differs. Consistency where it compounds, flexibility where it counts.
| The usual patchwork | Ahoy multi-entity | |
|---|---|---|
| Data isolation | Separate CRMs isolate by accident; one shared instance barely isolates at all | Isolated workspaces under one organization, by design |
| Group reporting | Spreadsheets assembled by hand each board cycle | Cross-workspace roll-ups, live |
| Definitions and KPIs | Five systems, five definitions of "qualified" | One playbook, shared definitions, per-company flexibility |
| Onboarding an acquisition | A migration project measured in quarters | A new workspace measured in days; history rebuilt from email and calendar |
| Admin burden | An admin or agency per system | No admin required at the opco - agents keep records current |
| Data quality | Only as good as each team's data entry | Captured automatically, the same in every workspace |
| Contracts and billing | A vendor agreement per entity | One master agreement, per-workspace billing |
For private equity operating partners
Two products share the name "private equity CRM": the deal-flow platform the fund runs, and the revenue CRM the portfolio sells from. This section is about the second - for the plain-English split, see CRM for private equity, explained.
Standardizing the revenue system across portfolio companies has become a standard value-creation line item - and the reason it usually stalls is adoption, not software selection. Portco sales teams are small, senior, and allergic to admin. A CRM that fills itself in is the first one they actually use, and adoption is what makes every downstream number real.
With one Ahoy organization across the portfolio, the deal team gets live pipeline roll-ups on shared definitions instead of quarterly collection rituals. The playbook is built once and applied per acquisition, so the hundredth day of the next platform deal looks like the hundredth day of the last one. And because every email, call, and meeting is captured from day one, you arrive at exit with a clean, complete activity history - revenue diligence material that most sellers spend a quarter reconstructing.
For diligence along the way: Ahoy is SOC 2 Type I and II, HIPAA compliant, with reports on request and a BAA available on Pro and Growth.
For holding companies and roll-ups
Serial acquirers get a repeatable pattern: a new workspace on day one, per-entity migration, brands and books kept separate while the group motion stays consistent. Shared-services teams - a group-level partnerships or enterprise motion - work in their own workspace alongside the entities they support. And the smallest version of the same problem is covered too: a founder running two or three companies needs the same thing at smaller scale - a CRM for multiple businesses with one login, separate workspaces, and none of the "which CRM am I in" overhead.
What the group gets on Ahoy…
- An isolated workspace per operating company or business unit, under one organization
- Cross-workspace roll-ups for group-level pipeline
- Granular roles and permissions, from the Pro plan
- SAML SSO and organization-level governance on Growth
- One master agreement, per-workspace billing
- AI included and unlimited in every seat - no credit budgets per entity
- SOC 2 Type I & II and HIPAA compliance, with reports on request
The full breakdown by plan is on the plans page. New to the category? Start with what an AI-native CRM is.
Frequently asked questions
What is a multi-entity CRM?
A CRM that runs multiple companies - operating companies, subsidiaries, brands, business units, or portfolio companies - under one organization, with isolated data per entity and consolidated reporting for the group. On Ahoy that means a workspace per company, cross-workspace roll-ups for the holding company, one master agreement, and per-workspace billing. Some vendors call the same idea a multi-tenant CRM or a CRM for multiple businesses; the job is identical.
Can each operating company keep its own pipelines, permissions, and data?
Yes - that is the design, not a workaround. Each workspace has its own pipelines, its own data model, and its own roles and permissions. Nothing leaks between entities that need to stay separate, whether the reason is legal, competitive, or just that the two businesses sell nothing alike.
How does the holding company see across every entity?
Cross-workspace roll-ups give group leadership live pipeline across every workspace on shared definitions - no export ritual, no spreadsheet layer, no waiting for each company to submit numbers. Each operating company still only sees its own workspace.
Is Ahoy a private equity deal-flow CRM like Affinity or DealCloud?
Not a vertical one. Deal-flow platforms such as Affinity, DealCloud, and 4Degrees are purpose-built for the investment team: sourcing, relationship intelligence, and LP management. Ahoy's center of gravity is the revenue CRM inside the operating companies - though its configurable pipelines can model deal flow in a workspace of its own if you would rather run one system for the whole firm.
How fast can a newly acquired company be onboarded?
Days, not quarters. A new workspace spins up under the existing organization, contacts, companies, and deals import from whatever the company was using, and Ahoy's agents rebuild activity context from connected email and calendar. Onboarding is included, and the group's playbook applies from day one.
What does Ahoy cost for a group of companies?
Pricing is per seat, billed monthly or annually, with AI usage included and unlimited - no credit budgets to manage per entity. Multiple workspaces, cross-workspace roll-ups, and SAML SSO ship on the Growth plan, under one master agreement with per-workspace billing. Request a demo and we will model your group.
Go deeper: What is an AI-native CRM? · Compare the field · Ahoy plans