9 Best Private Equity CRM Software

As stakeholders’ demands grow and investment cycles get more sophisticated, your investment management system should account for the new challenges. For better or worse, Excel spreadsheets will not help you in this battle. However, private equity CRM systems will.

Private equity CRM software, or PE CRM, is a centralized system that allows private equity investors to manage investor relations, monitor and analyze portfolio performance, integrate fund accounting, automate workflows, and share this information across teams, all within one consolidated platform.

Given the significant market for CRMs, the key question becomes: Which CRM works best for private equity investors?

With 26 years of experience in the CRM market, we took time to get thoughtful about the unique technology needs of investment firms and can share our expertise on the best private equity CRM software that meets those needs. We will compare 9 different CRMs and highlight what features investors should look for.

1. Salesforce
2. Xpedition Private CRM Accelerator
3. DealCloud
4. 4Degrees
5. Clienteer
6. Dynamo
7. SatuitCRM
8. Altvia
9. Affinity

Why Every Investor Needs a Private Equity CRM?

Here are 3 reasons investors need centralized private equity CRM solutions today:

• The necessity of granular reporting, like weekly investment meetings and lists of deal sources, for stakeholders, which are far more aggressively involved in the investment lifecycle than a decade ago, reports World Economic Forum survey. Reporting on the other hand requires flawless data hygiene – mission impossible with amateur tools like Excel, which in fact takes away your deals.
• The need to anticipate change and get ahead of it in the upcoming period of inflation, says Bain & Company. To obtain long-term predictions, simply having data is not enough. It needs to be actionable and interactive. Private equity CRM software delivers this at scale with intelligent AI technology powering up advanced dashboards and giving you accurate insights on the next steps you should take.
• Long deal cycles, which are somewhere between 7 and 10 years, involving multiple stakeholders. This translates into an immense database of relationships, which you can’t afford to lose. With private equity CRM tools, you don’t have to worry about this, as the system will capture your client details, link them with the relevant opportunities, and identify important communication touchpoints.
• Growing Demand for Digitization. According to the Private Equity Trend Report 2023 by PwC Germany, a striking 99 percent of investors surveyed expressed a strong interest in investing in digitization and digitalization. This trend underscores the need for advanced digital tools to stay competitive in the field.

What the Best Private Equity CRM Systems Should be Like

The best CRM for private equity is the one tailored to the needs of private equity investors, traders, accounting for long deal cycles, investment contact types (company/intermediary /limited partner, etc.), and unique workflows in the front, middle, and back-office investment process.

As such, ideal private equity CRM solutions should have the following functionality:

End-to-end Deal Management

A good private equity CRM will give you a comprehensive overview of every deal. For example, Salesforce is well-known for its comprehensive deal management capabilities. By customizing Salesforce for your private equity needs, you can conduct end-to-end deal management, including tracking potential acquisitions, evaluating targets, and managing due diligence processes.

Moreover, the platform can also help firms conduct deal sourcing (from early-stage deal sourcing to post-investment activities), rank every opportunity on a scale, and create a comprehensive portfolio for each company, including data about the primary contact person, investment details, last interaction records, and more.

Tracking of Private Equity Metrics

Investors always make data-driven decisions. While choosing the best private equity CRM, they’d precisely look for the functionality to track critical metrics such as:

• Liquidity
• Multiple on invested capital (MOIC)
• Cash flow
• Expense control
• Internal rate of return (IRR)
• Analysis of each product
• Customer lifetime value
• Industry related metrics

Tracking different metrics within a single system gives PE investors a snapshot of company performance within the open deals and portfolio portfolios.

Robust Visualization and Dashboards

Salesforce CRM is very flexible and customizable in terms of visualizations and dashboards. You can easily set up Salesforce reports required for sales managers in your private equity firm.

As a result, you get a CRM that already contains industry-specific dashboards where you can easily capture, analyze, and visualize relevant investment data, see how your investments or capital raising efforts are progressing according to different parties involved to this process.

Recent Activity Dashboard in Salesforce

Relationship Databases

Private Equity business is based on establishing relationships with different partners and investors. When looking for a private equity CRM, choosing software with functionality for relationship tracking, following up, and nurturing is crucial.

The best private equity CRM facilitates the effective management of relationship databases by centralizing and organizing data related to investors, portfolio companies, and other stakeholders. It provides tools for maintaining detailed profiles, tracking communications, and monitoring preferences.

Relationship mapping features offer visual representations of complex networks, aiding in strategic decision-making.

Collaboration Tools for Consistent Messaging

It’s a major sin to give conflicting information to different parties, whether it be an intermediary, a limited partner, or a general partner. With well-organized PE CRM, you can interconnect your efforts across teams and give everyone access to past communications with clients and partners, so no repeat information is ever sent and no data is left behind.

3rd-Party Data & App Integration

Financial professionals all have their own way of doing things. Effective CRM for private equity firms should account for the old habits and give investors flexibility to integrate systems they like (Outlook or Gmail) and data sources they need (Preqin, Pitchbook, and other data providers).

Scalability

No business is static. The best private equity CRM solutions are those that can change right along with any changes to the firm. A PE CRM platform that is customizable and flexible enough to scale along with the business will give private equity investors the freedom to grow their returns, without having to worry about outgrowing their private equity deal management software.

Customization and System Enhancements

Even the best CRM software for private equity might not always cater to the unique needs of private capital investors. So, it’s best to choose a system that would allow for flexibility in terms of dashboards, client profiles, and reporting tools to make your system aligned with your investment processes.

Right off the bat, the prize for being the most customizable system goes to Salesforce – the world’s most favored CRM platform and the foundation of most purpose-built CRMs that we will discuss further.

The Best Private Equity CRM Software: Our Ultimate Picks

To help you make the right decision, we’ll take a look at the top nine private equity CRMs. By the end of this guide, you’ll have a clear understanding of what features you should look for and how to leverage them to grow your business.

Salesforce

Used by 150,000 businesses across the world, of all sizes, from investment banks to private equity firms, retail to government, Salesforce is the first name coming to mind when one thinks of CRM. Founded back in 1999, Salesforce has designed unique CRM products (called Clouds) to cater to the challenges of various business verticals, including finance (Financial Cloud).

Salesforce does not, of course, claim to have extensive expertise in private equity fundraising software. However, it does offer essential features like contact management, lead management, dashboards, workflow automation, reporting AND infinite opportunities for customizations and third-party integrations.

So, Salesforce as private equity CRM software has the following advantages:

• It offers various cloud solutions for PE firms, for example, Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (formerly Pardot), Financial Services Cloud, Experience Cloud;

• Salesforce offers investor relationship management (IRM), deal management, fund management, portfolio management, and reporting functionality;
• Unlimited opportunities for customization of workflows and interfaces;
• High security standards to protect your data;
• Scalable and customizable solution, proven as a platform for building out other applications;
• Salesforce integrates with a variety of other software applications, such as accounting software, portfolio management software, and document management software;
• Easy to use interface: you can move Salesforce components around however it works for you. This is one of the top reasons why our clients choose to migrate to Salesforce;
• Interactive dashboards powered by AI that discover the most unpredictable data patterns giving you accurate insights on your next steps.

How Private Equity Investors Can Benefit from Salesforce CRM | Ascendix

Cons of Salesforce as private equity CRM:

• Salesforce can be expensive, especially for small businesses;
• While Salesforce offers reporting capabilities, some users face limitations in the out-of-the-box reporting tools;
• Effective utilization of Salesforce often requires skilled administrators or developers;
• You might need to develop additional fields or account types (LP / GP / intermediary) depending on how you run your business.

The beauty of the Salesforce ecosystem is that it is like a blank page with unlimited tools for developing a PE CRM tailored to your needs from scratch. But be aware of additional costs.

Xpedition Private CRM Accelerator

This is a cloud-based CRM platform that is specifically designed for the private equity industry. Xpedition Private CRM Accelerator is built on Microsoft Dynamics 365, Power Platform and the Azure Data Platform.

The core functionality of the Xpedition Private Equity CRM Accelerator works towards managing fundraising and investor relations, workflow automation, and data analytics (Power BI).

Pros:

• Seamless integration with existing Microsoft and 3rd party applications
• Deal management including the pipeline, stage, and status of each deal
• Inbuilt deal flow process
• Fund management for effective tracking raising, and nurturing of your funds, including the performance of each fund and the investments that have been made
• Portfolio management to track and manage your portfolio, including the performance of each investment and the overall risk profile of your portfolio.
• Power BI to relate different data sets, analyze them, and help investors make data-driven decisions.
• Briefing app to allow stakeholders to communicate, sign contracts, and negotiate within secure deal rooms.
• Intuitive and easily adopted platform

Cons:

• As a Dynamics-based product Xpedition has a sophisticated interface that is NOT easy to use
• Has glitches and inefficiencies meaning that you will need to have an in-house tech team to properly maintain the system.

DealCloud

DealCloud is a specialized deal and relationship management platform designed for financial services firms, including private equity. It caters to the unique needs of professionals involved in deal sourcing, execution, and relationship management within the finance industry. The platform offers tools for managing deal pipelines, tracking relationships, and optimizing deal flow.

Pros of DealCloud as private equity CRM:

• Industry-Specific Customization
• Comprehensive Deal Pipeline Management
• Emphasis on Relationship Intelligence
• Data Security and Compliance
• Investment management, including portfolio management, performance tracking, and reporting.

Cons DealCloud as a private equity CRM:

• DealCloud’s pricing may be relatively higher
• The platform has Limited offline functionality, therefore requires a stable internet connection that is crucial for cloud-based solution
• Non-technical users might face limitations in making adjustments independently.

4Degrees

4Degrees is private equity CRM software developed by ex-investors for investors. The platform claims to be the best private equity CRM for its lead management, customizable deal flow, LP and portfolio management, and Email / calendar sync.

The system can also automatically score relationship strength based on prior interactions, giving investors more insight into the probability of deal success.

Pros of 4Degrees as private equity CRM:

• Built by investment experts who are familiar with the crowded private equity sector
• 4Degrees emphasizes data security and compliance
• Customizable workflows that reflect the unique investment workflows
• Comprehensive LP and portfolio management
• Automated relationship strength scoring
• Email / calendar sync: captures new communications in email / calendar tools and offers you to create a whole new contact or link them with the existing records.

Cons 4Degrees as private equity CRM:

• Poor customization and integration opportunities
• 4Degrees can be difficult to implement on your own, so you may need to hire a consultant to help you
• If in your private equity tool stack you have apps other than simple calendar or email, the system won’t offer you native ways to plug them in.

Clienteer

Clienteer is a CRM platform hosted in Azure® cloud and designed specifically for professionals in the financial services industry, including private equity, wealth management, and family offices. It provides tools for relationship management, deal tracking, and data analytics.

Clienteer aims to enhance collaboration and streamline workflows for financial professionals dealing with complex client relationships and investment processes.

Pros of Clienteer as private equity CRM:

• Supports multiple subscription levels and deployment options that make platform a scalable solution
• Clienteer emphasizes relationship management, including client profiling and interaction tracking
• Allows tracking all aspects of capital raising process
• Offers management of campaigns, roadshows planning, and events marketing by targeting prospects and investors
• Ability to automatically distribute watermarked and branded fund factsheets as well as other custom reports.

Cons of Clienteer as private equity CRM:

• Software lags that may occur from time to time
• Clienteer’s feature-rich nature may result in a learning curve for new users
• Complex customization may require technical expertise.

Dynamo

Dynamo is an investment technology company offering cloud-based solutions for the alternative investments space, including end-to-end private equity fundraising software, venture capital tools, real estate platforms, and more.

Dynamo has done a great job catering to the unique needs of private equity with its technology solutions for deal management, manager tracking and due diligence, investor relationship management, and workflow automation.

And the beauty of this PE CRM is that you can mix these modules the way you want to get the best CRM for your private equity business.

The pros of Dynamo CRM for private equity are:

• Trusted by alternative investment professionals.
• Configurable workflows tailored to private equity processes.
• Modular structure that allows investors to choose only the functionality they want.
• Integrated investor portal where investors can view performance data.
• Third-party integrations with data providers including Preqin, Factset, Pitchbook.

Cons of Dynamo as private equity CRM:

• Limited API capabilities of the Dynamo platform make it impossible to natively integrate nontraditional third-party systems
• Some users report that the user interface and tool board are not straightforward and could be hard to learn.
• Dynamo CRM, being designed for the alternative investment industry, may have a learning curve.

SatuitCRM

SatuitCRM is a CRM software designed for investment professionals, particularly catering to asset management, private equity, wealth management, and hedge fund industries.

It provides tools for relationship management, client communication, and fund marketing. SatuitCRM aims to streamline workflows and enhance collaboration in the context of investment management.

Pros of SatuitCRM as private equity CRM:

• Contains three industry-tailored solutions: SatuitCRM©, SatuitSIP©, Satuit2GO©
• Has a suite of products for either Cloud-based or on-premise use
• Skilled support team and account managers work closely with clients after the installation
• Has Report Packaging software

Cons of SatuitCRM as private equity CRM:

• Challenges in integrating SatuitCRM with other tools
• SatuitCRM is not as customizable as some other CRM platforms
• System interface seems to be aged compare with others like Salesforce
• SatuitCRM does not offer some of the advanced features that are available in other CRM platforms, such as workflow automation and predictive analytics.

Altvia

Developed on top of Salesforce, Altvia is another example of effective private equity CRM software. The CRM tool is packed with various features designed to help investors improve their productivity and close more deals. Altvia PE CRM caters to all investors’ needs with its modular structure consisting of 3 elements: CRM platform for key workflows, contact management, and relationship mapping; AI-powered analytics to drive insights; secure deal rooms.

Pros of Altiva as private equity CRM:

• A secure LP platform for communication and data sharing
• Rich visual analytics powered by Salesforce AI
• Room for customization and configuration
• Open ecosystem for third-party integrations
• Built-in investor report generation tool
• Extensive workflow automation and collaboration opportunities.

Cons of Altiva as private equity CRM:

• Altvia is a complex platform, so it may take some time to learn and use
• This solution can be difficult to implement on your own, so you may need to hire a consultant to help you
• Altvia might have a relatively higher cost
• Some clients face poor customer support.

This private equity CRM is capable of some custom reporting which is great for those who often send quarterly reports and portfolio companies lists to stakeholders. However, the functionality is not always intuitive, and the designs are simple, so you might want to invest in a third-party reporting product.

Affinity

Affinity CRM is a cloud-based CRM platform that is designed for businesses of all sizes. It offers a wide range of features to help businesses manage their relationships, deals, and pipeline. Affinity CRM is known for its user-friendly interface and its ability to be customized to meet the specific needs of each business.

Affinity leverages data-driven insights to enhance relationship management, deal tracking, and business development processes.

Pros of Affinity as private equity CRM:

• Affinity is praised for its user-friendly and intuitive interface
• Affinity specializes in relationship mapping, providing visualizations of connections
• Affinity CRM integrates with a variety of other software applications, such as accounting software, marketing automation software, and email marketing software
• Affinity CRM offers excellent customer support via phone, email, and online chats.

Cons of Affinity as private equity CRM:

• The platform relies on external data sources for enrichment
• Limited analytics/reports offered
• While feature-rich, the complexity of certain features might be overwhelming for some users.

Achieve Your Private Equity Success with Ascendix

Ascendix team leverages the knowledge we have gained for 20+ years in the CRM space to help private equity investors tune their technology solutions to reflect their business nature.

We offer different services either for private equity firms that use Salesforce CRM or other CRM solutions. Here is how we can help:

• CRM Strategizing & Roadmapping: We will assess your CRM performance based on your business needs and craft a detailed plan for optimization, customization, and private equity CRM adoption.

• Private Equity CRM Customization: We’ll tweak your existing platform with custom fields, account types, dashboards, and third-party apps.

• End-to-End Salesforce Implementation: We can handle your entire Salesforce for private equity projects, from discovery and implementation planning to development and testing.

For those who chooses Salesforce as their CRM for private equity, Ascendix provides additional expertise and solutions to maximize your investment:

• Secure Self-Service Portal: Develop a secure self-service portal powered by Experience Cloud for borrowers, investors, lenders, and partners. This portal will feature a meticulously designed hierarchy of user roles, sharing protocols, permissions, and access controls. Refine the portal’s design to enhance the digital experience, ensuring it is intuitive and user-friendly.
• Technical Strategy Alignment: Align your technical strategy with business goals to fully leverage Salesforce capabilities. This includes creating custom fields and objects to streamline data integration across systems, with support for data export/import.
• Deal and Co-Investment Management: Optimize Salesforce for managing deals, co-investment opportunities, and joint ventures with a centralized tool.
• Third-Party Tool Integration: Integrate Salesforce with other third-party tools to manage communications, meetings, maintain investor relations, and enhance portfolio operations effectively at scale.
• Salesforce Migration Services: If your current system no longer fuels your business growth, we can help you upgrade to Salesforce for private equity.

Should you need enhancement to your current CRM strategy, our experts are here to help. Tell us more about your technology challenges, and we’ll look into solutions today.