What Delve does

Delve, operated by Twenty To Nine, LLC, is a cloud-based Computer-Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS) platform headquartered in New York City. The product is built on Heroku, AWS, and PostgreSQL infrastructure and targets academic and professional researchers who code qualitative data such as interview transcripts, focus groups, and open-ended survey responses. Its core capabilities include transcript upload and coding, a centralized flexible codebook with nesting and merging, side-by-side coding comparison for intercoder agreement, memo attachments on snippets and codes, and real-time team collaboration. A proprietary AI Assistant module suggests codes, applies codebooks across transcripts, and operates as a peer debriefer to surface alternative perspectives and pattern-level insights.

Delve serves a hybrid customer base. The primary segments are graduate and doctoral students and academic researchers, with secondary segments including educators, principal investigators, UX/product researchers, and consulting firms. Named adopters include the University of Pennsylvania, DonorsChoose, Louisiana State University (NSF-funded research), and ADM Insights and Strategy. The go-to-market is dual-track: a product-led growth motion with a 14-day free trial and self-serve monthly sign-up, paired with a direct enterprise sales motion for institutional and large-group licenses negotiated via email.

The business model is pure recurring subscription SaaS. Pricing is $50 per user per month with month-to-month or discounted annual billing, free view-only seats for collaborators, and a discounted education tier for students and educators. Enterprise pricing is custom. The company appears to be bootstrapped with no disclosed external funding, a 1-10 person headcount, and no patents, M&A, or partnership signals in the source data. Marketing is content-led, anchored by a free online course, the Guide to Qualitative Coding, and SEO-oriented methodology articles that drive top-of-funnel acquisition in the qualitative research niche.

Name

Delve

Legal name

Twenty To Nine, LLC

Website

https://delvetool.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Delve is a cloud-based CAQDAS platform that enables academic and professional researchers to code qualitative data, collaborate on codebooks, and apply AI-assisted coding across transcripts. It primarily serves graduate students and academic researchers, with secondary use by UX researchers and consulting firms.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. Subscription - Monthly: Monthly per-user subscription at $50/month. Billed automatically each month until cancelled.
2. Subscription - Annual: Annual subscription option available with discounted pricing compared to monthly rate.
3. Education Pricing: Discounted subscription rates for students and educators. Special education pricing available.
4. Institutional/Enterprise Licensing: Large group licenses for institutions and enterprises with custom pricing negotiated via sales team.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

Delve is a cloud-based Computer-Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS) platform that lets researchers upload transcripts, build and manage a centralized codebook, apply codes to qualitative data, collaborate on analysis in real time with intercoder comparison, and export insights. The product is sold on a per-user monthly or annual subscription with a 14-day free trial, education pricing, and custom institutional/enterprise licensing. An integrated AI Assistant suggests codes, applies codebooks across transcripts, and acts as a peer debriefer to explore alternative perspectives.

Product overview

Delve is a single, unified cloud-based CAQDAS (Computer-Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software) platform designed for qualitative researchers. The core product, Delve, provides transcript coding, collaborative analysis, and codebook management capabilities. It includes an integrated AI Assistant module that offers code suggestion, automated codebook application, and conversational peer debriefing features. Additionally, Delve offers a free online course as supplementary educational content for researchers learning qualitative analysis methods.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Delve Qualitative Data Analysis Software Cloud-based Computer-Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS) for researchers. Users upload transcripts (interviews, focus groups, open-ended survey responses), create and evolve a centralized codebook, apply codes to snippets, attach analytical memos, nest and merge codes, collaborate with team members in real time, compare coding side by side for intercoder reliability, and export results. It is sold as a per-user subscription to graduate students, doctoral candidates, academic researchers, principal investigators, UX/product researchers, and market research and consulting firms.

Quantifiable outcome

• Saves hours of analysis time compared to manual coding methods
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability4 records

Feature5 records

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• NVivo (Lumivero): NVivo, now under Lumivero, is the most established CAQDAS platform for qualitative researchers. It competes head-to-head with Delve across academic, government, and enterprise research users, but is widely cited as having a steep learning curve - the very gap Delve's ease-of-use positioning attacks.
• ATLAS.ti: ATLAS.ti is a long-standing CAQDAS tool used by academic and commercial researchers for coding transcripts, memos, and thematic analysis. It is a direct competitor in qualitative coding workflows, with a similar feature surface (codes, memos, intercoder work) and a more desktop-centric product than Delve's cloud-native approach.
• Dedoose: Dedoose is a web-based CAQDAS application targeting social and behavioral science researchers, especially in academic and mixed-methods projects. Like Delve, it is browser-based and subscription-priced, making it one of the closest direct competitors in delivery model and target persona.
• MAXQDA: MAXQDA is a CAQDAS tool used across academic disciplines for qualitative and mixed-methods analysis. It is a direct competitor for the same graduate-student, dissertation, and research-team customers, and is one of the established tools Delve benchmarks itself against on ease of use.
• QDA Miner (Provalis Research): QDA Miner is a CAQDAS tool from Provalis Research that supports coding, content analysis, and mixed-methods workflows. It is a direct competitor for academic and applied qualitative researchers, with a more traditional desktop-tool footprint.

Emerging players

• Quirkos: Quirkos is a lightweight, visual CAQDAS tool positioned as an easier alternative to NVivo. It targets the same ease-of-use gap Delve addresses and competes for budget-constrained students, academics, and small research teams.
• Taguette: Taguette is an open-source, web-based qualitative coding tool aimed at students and independent researchers. It overlaps with Delve in the graduate-student and qualitative-coder persona and represents a free alternative in the same workflow.
• Dovetail: Dovetail is a research repository and analysis platform for UX and product teams, with AI-assisted tagging and synthesis. It overlaps with Delve on the UX-researcher customer segment and is increasingly moving into qualitative coding-style workflows, putting it in competitive overlap for non-academic users.
• Condens: Condens is a cloud-based user research analysis platform with tagging, highlight reels, and AI-assisted synthesis. It targets the same UX/product research and consulting personas as Delve and represents a SaaS-native competitor in qualitative research workflows.

Broad incumbents

• Otter.ai: Otter.ai is an AI meeting and transcription platform that has added summarization, topic detection, and conversational AI for transcripts. While not a dedicated CAQDAS tool, it competes for the same underlying user behavior of analyzing spoken/textual data and could expand down-market into qualitative research.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/c/delvetool
• Xx.com/delvetool
• Facebookfacebook.com/delvetool
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/delvetool

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Delve