CRM · Affinity + Claude
Affinity MCP with Claude: Smarter Deal Flow and Investor Outreach
The short answer
Claude connects to Affinity through the Model Context Protocol (MCP), a secure standard that lets Claude read and act inside your CRM. Once connected, your team can search contacts, track deals and update pipelines using plain-English requests. Access is set by your organisation, and people approve important actions before they happen.
What is Affinity?
Affinity is a relationship intelligence CRM built for private capital investors, including venture capital, private equity and growth funds. It helps teams organise deal flow, see who in their network can introduce them to a company, and move opportunities through each stage to a close. Investment professionals, analysts and platform teams use it to keep relationships and pipelines in one place.
How Claude connects to Affinity through MCP
The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard that works like a universal adapter between Claude and other software. It lets Claude use a tool securely, reading information and taking actions, with permissions your organisation controls. For Affinity, the connection is set up using an API key, so access follows the permissions of the account it belongs to.
Once connected, Claude can typically look up contacts and organisations, review deals and their stages, add notes, and update pipeline information. A partner might ask Claude to list every open deal in a given sector, or to find who in the network has a connection to a target company. Claude works from the data your team already keeps in Affinity.
Permissions and approvals keep your people in charge. We set up the connection with least-privilege access, so Claude sees only what it needs. Consequential actions, such as changing a deal stage or sending investor outreach, can be routed for human approval first. Every action is logged, so you can review what happened and why.
What you can automate
Deal pipeline updates
After a partner meeting, a team member can describe the outcome in plain English. Claude can log the notes against the right company, update the deal stage and set a follow-up task. This keeps the pipeline accurate without manual data entry, and the stage change waits for approval where your policy requires it.
Finding warm introductions
Before reaching out to a founder, an investor can ask Claude which contacts in the firm's network have a relationship with that company. Claude searches Affinity and summarises the best introduction paths, so the team approaches each opportunity with a trusted connection rather than a cold email.
Investor outreach and follow-ups
Fundraising teams often need to follow up with many limited partners after each update. Claude can draft personalised messages using the notes and history stored in Affinity, with each draft reviewed before it is sent. This saves time while keeping every message relevant to the relationship.
Weekly deal flow reviews
Before a Monday investment meeting, a principal can ask Claude for a summary of deals that moved stage last week, deals with no activity for 30 days, and new contacts added. Claude compiles the answer from Affinity so the meeting starts with a clear view of the pipeline.
Contact search and data hygiene
Operations staff can ask Claude to find duplicate contacts, missing fields or outdated organisation records. Claude lists the issues it finds and proposes corrections. A team member confirms each change, which keeps the CRM tidy and trustworthy over time.
An end-to-end workflow: New inbound deal to first investor meeting
TriggerA new startup pitch arrives in a shared inbox and is logged as a lead.
Claude reads the pitch details and creates or matches the company record in Affinity.
Claude searches the firm's network in Affinity for contacts with ties to the company's founders or sector.
Claude drafts a deal summary and shares it with the deal team in Microsoft 365 Teams for review.
After approval, Claude moves the deal to the first-review stage and creates a follow-up task for the lead partner.
Claude prepares a short introduction email to the best-connected contact, held for approval before sending.
OutcomeInbound opportunities are logged and screened within the same day, warm introduction paths are identified early, and no lead is lost in a busy inbox. Typical results vary by team and volume.
How we set it up
Free automation audit
We review how your team uses Affinity today and where time is lost, such as manual updates, slow introductions or scattered notes. You leave with a clear list of workflows worth automating.
Secure connection
We connect Claude to Affinity using your API key, stored securely and scoped to the minimum access needed. Where a direct API is more suitable for your setup, we use that route instead.
Workflow design
We design the end-to-end process across Affinity and your other systems, such as Microsoft 365, email and ticketing. Approval points are agreed so people stay in control of consequential actions.
Testing with real cases
We test the workflow against past deals and contacts from your own pipeline. We check accuracy, adjust prompts and rules, and confirm that approvals work as intended before anything goes live.
Launch, monitoring and training
We launch with audit logs and monitoring in place, then train your deal teams and operations staff. We stay available to refine the workflows as your needs change.
Who benefits
- Investment partners
- Faster access to deal summaries and warm introduction paths, so more time goes to evaluating opportunities.
- Deal team analysts
- Less manual data entry, with notes and pipeline updates handled through plain-English requests.
- Fundraising and investor relations teams
- Personalised follow-ups drafted from relationship history, reviewed before they are sent.
- Operations and CRM administrators
- Cleaner records, fewer duplicates and a clear audit trail of changes made to the data.
Security and control
- API key access is scoped to the minimum permissions the workflow needs, and keys are stored securely.
- Consequential actions such as stage changes and outbound investor messages can require human approval.
- Every action Claude takes is logged, giving you an audit trail for review.
- Sensitive investor and deal data stays within the access rules your organisation already sets in Affinity.
- Workflows are tested against real cases before launch and monitored afterwards.
For teams in the US, UK, India and the Middle East
Organisations in the United States and the United Kingdom can run Claude-powered Affinity workflows with data handled under their local privacy and security requirements. In India, workflows are designed to meet the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. In the UAE and Saudi Arabia, we align with local data protection laws. Hosting region is chosen to meet your specific requirements, including data residency in India, the United States, the United Kingdom or the European Union.
Learn more about Claude and MCP
Anthropic's AI model and assistant.
Secure links between Claude and business tools.
How engineers build and change software with Claude.
Hosted agents that run multi-step work.
The open standard Claude uses to connect to tools.
Frequently asked questions
What does the Affinity MCP server do?
The Affinity MCP server acts as a secure bridge between Claude and your Affinity CRM. It lets Claude search contacts, review deals, add notes and update pipeline information using natural language. The server only exposes the actions it is set up to allow, so your team controls what Claude can see and change.
Is connecting Claude to Affinity secure?
Security depends on how the connection is set up. We use an API key scoped to the minimum access required, store it securely, and enable audit logs for every action. Consequential changes can require human approval, so sensitive investor and deal data remains protected by your existing access rules.
What can Claude do with Affinity once connected?
Typically, Claude can search for contacts and organisations, look up deals and their stages, add notes, update pipeline records and help draft investor outreach. It works from the data already in Affinity, so the quality of results reflects how well your CRM is maintained.
How long does setup take?
Many setups take a few weeks, from the free audit through to launch and training. The timeline depends on how many workflows you want to automate and how complex your other systems are. We agree a schedule during the audit so you know what to expect before committing.
Which Affinity plan or permissions do I need?
Generally, you need an Affinity account with an API key and permissions that cover the actions you want Claude to perform. Your administrator decides which access level is appropriate. We review your current setup during the audit and recommend the access needed, without changing your plan.