By Ed Rowley, August 2024
I've recently posted new lists covering dozens of software and technology solutions used by investment managers to raise assets and serve investors.
Technology is moving into every part of fund sales, marketing and investor relations, as managers try to improve efficiency and gain a competitive advantage.
This is a dynamic area, with multiple solution types and providers, and constant development and evolution.
Below I segment and explain the range of solutions and common terminology. To view our lists and summaries of related products and providers, click here.
The lists cover technology and software that facilitates raising assets and serving investors at investment managers, in sectors including hedge funds, private equity, venture capital, real estate and long-only.
To be included in the lists, the technology provider must focus specifically on serving investment managers or have investment managers as a meaningful portion of its client base.
Note that I’ve tried to only include fund sales, marketing and IR technology that can be purchased as an independent product. So, for example, the lists don’t include fund portals that are bundled with fund administration services, or reporting software that is bundled with fund accounting software.
As with all the lists on The Fund Marketer, I try for comprehensiveness with the realization that I will miss some organizations. I’ll continue to add to and evolve the lists as I find new information.
The solutions are segmented into six main categories, detailed below, with links to the corresponding lists of solution providers.
CRM (customer relationship management) software helps asset managers collect, organize and track client and prospect information and interactions.
The technology often also provides sales pipeline and deal management tools and reporting.
CRMs usually integrate with the manager’s email system, so that a contact record shows all emails to/from that contact. Most CRMs can also initiate emails on either an individual or group basis.
CRMs can be integrated with other systems to track activity such as marketing email opens or document viewing on investor portals. This data provides a centralized view of interactions with a contact and drives analytics to identify prospects and automate actions.
Digital and email marketing platforms facilitate reaching large groups of investors and tracking interactions to identify prospects. They sometimes refer to themselves as “campaign management” or "marketing automation" tools.
The most common use for these platforms is to send marketing-related emails, though some platforms also deliver communications through SMS (text messaging), social media and digital advertising.
Marketing platforms have an analytics component that tracks when emails are opened, ads and websites are viewed, etc. The analytics can identify prospects and automate additional communications.
One obvious question is: if a CRM system can send emails to groups of contacts, why would one need an email marketing platform?
The answer is related to the volume of emails and recipient type. Emails initiated via CRM systems are normally sent through the manager’s email provider, and most email providers place limits on the volume of emails that can be sent through their systems.
Additionally, “sender reputation” is important in ensuring emails are delivered and don’t end up in spam folders. So a common practice is to have marketing email blasts handled by a system that is separate from the email system used for direct business interactions. This way, if some portion of marketing emails are being labeled as spam, it doesn't impact business email deliverability.
Fund reporting and investor communications software generates investor reporting, ranging from fund-level reports like monthly or quarterly reports, to investor-level reporting showing balances and returns.
Some reporting platforms also feature digital dashboards that provide investors with transparency into portfolios and allow them to interact with data.
This category also includes platforms that handle investor communications and notices such as capital calls.
Presentation management and RFP automation software is used by investment managers to generate materials for acquiring new clients.
Larger investment managers with global operations and diverse product ranges often use presentation management systems to organize their slides, create approval workflows and enable staff to assemble presentation decks using pre-approved slides.
Similarly, RFP automation software seeks to streamline the labor-intensive process of answering RFP and DDQ questions by maintaining a bank of answers and facilitating the collection and updating of information.
“Sales enablement” is a broader term related to equipping sales teams. It encompasses sales collateral management, as well as areas like sales staff training and onboarding. It’s more commonly used in reference to educating and equipping larger groups of sales staff at a manager or its distribution partners.
Investor onboarding and fund subscription solutions automate and streamline the fund subscription process through online and digital tools.
The technology usually includes customizable workflows and forms, electronic signing, AML/KYC checks, and integration with other parties in the subscription process.
Some of these solutions operate as “platforms”, where an investor enters their information and goes through approvals once. Then the information and approvals can be applied across managers and funds on the platform.
Investor portals and data rooms let investment managers share information with current and prospective investors through password-protected websites.
“Investor portals” is a broader term encompassing websites that contain information for current as well as prospective investors.
These portals can be customized to show information on a user-by-user basis. So, for example, an investor would see general fund materials that the manager has authorized the investor to see, as well as reports and documents specific to that investor.
“Data rooms” usually refer to password-protected sites for M&A deals, though some of these products are also used to share information with prospective fund investors, particularly in the private equity industry.
Investor portals and data rooms usually track visitor activity, which is helpful in measuring prospect interest.
It can be daunting for investment managers to navigate the variety of technology and software related to raising assets and serving investors. Below I cover a few core decisions and ways of approaching the space.
Technology can bring substantial benefits in productivity, efficiency and effectiveness. But it also has downsides including costs, time to setup and maintain, staff training and system limitations.
There are also risks such as the software not working as intended, bugs and system downtime, vendor lock-in, and the possibility that employees resist using the software as intended.
For some sales, marketing and IR processes, investment managers need to decide whether it's worth the time and cost to replace in-house processes with external technology solutions.
Generally the deciding factor is the manager's size. A smaller manager may find that their existing processes are working well enough and their limited resources are best spent elsewhere.
But as a manager grows and becomes more complex, its size and complexity will normally outstrip the capacity of manual or semi-manual processes. At this point the manager has the resources and incentive to invest in more technology.
Decisions on external technology are also impacted by how an investment manager plans to compete. Managers that prioritize best-in-class sales, marketing and IR functions as a competitive advantage are more likely to invest in technology and pursue cutting edge solutions.
Some solutions focus on specific manager types such as hedge funds, PE/VC, real estate or mutual funds. Others are not industry specific.
The argument for a large, generalist platform is it may have more features and flexibility. The argument for a specialized solution is that it is built specifically for investment managers and will be set up and optimized for their needs.
I believe the decision comes down to the features a manager is looking for, and the amount of time and resources the manager can devote to setup, customization and integration.
It’s also a question of style – whether the manager prefers to work with a large platform with hundreds of thousands of clients and a large technology spend, or a midsized or smaller platform that focuses only on investment managers and provides more personalized service.
Some platforms cover multiple sales, marketing and IR functions. Others focus on a specific function or two.
The advantage of a platform that contains multiple features is that it simplifies the technology decision, reduces setup time, and should result in easier integration between functions.
The advantage of a stand-alone solution is that it provides flexibility to purchase solutions that are the best fit in each category, and also ensures that the manager is only paying for functionality it needs.
Like many of these questions, the decision is impacted by how much time and internal technology resources the manager can devote to implementing the solution.
Managers will need to make their own determination on a technology provider’s cost, reputation, security and other issues, since the relative importance of each of these factors varies manager-by-manager.
From a functionality perspective, one (obvious) piece of advice I can give is to really “test drive” the software via live demos or trials, and to spend significant time doing this. Also have some users run through various use cases and see the functionality first-hand.
Test driving should help confirm the software’s exact features and functionality. It will also provide a better sense of the technology’s usability. For example, how fast does it run? Is it intuitive and pleasant to use? Is it well designed and easy to navigate?
These functionality and usability factors can be the difference between users embracing vs. resisting new technology they are being told to use instead of existing processes.
Assessing the provider's client service is also important. Technology will have bugs, glitches and system crashes. Users will also have questions, issues and feature requests. It’s harder to “test drive” ongoing service, but assessing the knowledge and responsiveness of the provider’s staff during the selection process may give a hint.
There's also the question of how well and easily a new solution will integrate with the manager's existing technology. Some software contains pre-built integrations, while others require the user to create the integration through APIs or other methods.
The organization should also be evaluated. The organization’s history, products, management and ownership can indicate the organization's stability and the resources and incentives it has to continue to improve its technology.
Finally, when possible, speaking to existing clients is valuable. They can share an unvarnished view on a solution's upsides and downsides.
Our lists provide a starting point to identifying a range of software and technology solutions for sales, marketing and IR functions at investment managers. Links are provided to each provider's website so that you can contact the provider directly and make your own assessment. The lists can be viewed here.
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