After a slowdown during the early stages of the pandemic, fundraising is back in full swing in 2021. According to DealCloud’s Spring 2021 Dealmaker Pulse report, 45% of capital markets professionals responded that they’re proceeding with fundraising and anticipate their next funds to be larger than expected.
In our recent webinar, “Conquering Today’s IR Challenges with Technology,” investor relations (IR) industry experts from Lexington Partners and Permira discussed how they’re using purpose-built technology to strengthen relationships with limited partners (LPs) and close deals faster in the capital markets.
“DealCloud is very well established as part of our infrastructure, and we continue to work with the team to find ways to get more out of the system and expand the platform into different parts of our business. We continue to move forward on technology as a key part and facilitator of the investor relations function.”
– Jessica Ferm, Senior Director of Investor Relations at Permira
Strengthening relationships with LPs
Technology has helped many IR teams better connect with their LPs in the remote work environment where they aren’t able to meet in person. By using videoconferencing technology such as Zoom, for example, IR teams can hold interactive meetings and share visuals rather than just providing basic updates via phone. Video conferences also allow IR teams to put faces to names, particularly for international investors with whom they might have primarily engaged via email rather than face to face in the past. Although technology has increased and improved communications between IR teams and LPs during the pandemic, IR teams must also leverage technology to effectively manage and track those relationships.
Managing data
By centralizing all of the firm’s most critical proprietary and third-party data, technology such as DealCloud helps fundraising and IR managers gain visibility and insights into the firm’s key activities and initiatives. The IR teams at Permira and Lexington Partners leverage DealCloud to manage relationship data, including meetings and activity with LPs, and to track which contacts have received investment materials. The IR team at Lexington Partners manages secondary market data, including seller and transaction types and capital raised, directly in DealCloud. Using DealCloud, IR teams can build custom reports to easily pull real-time data on transaction types, allowing them to provide more timely updates to their investors.
Across industries and businesses, the pandemic not only transformed business operations but also highlighted the importance of quick, easy, and comprehensive access to the information required to make critical business decisions. Today, a growing number of technology providers are targeting the private equity industry while IR teams continue to evaluate technology for ways to systematize, customize, and automate their processes.
To learn more about how investor relations teams from top capital markets firms are leveraging DealCloud, watch to the Conquering Today’s IR Challenges with Technology on-demand webinar.
To learn more about DealCloud for investor relations, schedule a demo.