Building a thriving private capital advisory practice has become more challenging than ever.
Meeting GP and LP expectations is tricky, with advisors often finding themselves caught in a tug of war between GPs who want funding — fast — and LPs, who want time to evaluate pitches and commitments.
In addition, market volatility is suppressing LP activity, while a wave of new advisors and boutique firms is making it harder to stand out from the competition.
Firms that rely on disconnected systems and slow manual processes to track information face even more obstacles. That’s because it’s difficult (if not impossible) to quickly access the real-time insights required to deliver exceptional client value and match the right GPs with the right LPs.
Implementing a CRM for private capital advisory that’s built for how you work can make all the difference. Keep reading to find out how AI-powered Intapp DealCloud can help your advisors overcome these challenges — and exceed the expectations of both their GPs and LPs.
Challenge 1: Slow fundraising
Fundraising has become increasingly difficult and slow. The McKinsey Global Private Markets Report reveals that in 2024, fundraising across all asset classes fell to its lowest levels since 2016, with traditional commingled vehicles experiencing a 24% year-over-year drop. This marks the third straight year of decline.
This decline is driven in part by delayed LP activity. With interest rates remaining elevated, many LPs are favoring fixed-income investments over illiquid private funds, with McKinsey noting a rise in new GP fund structures designed to meet growing LP liquidity demands. At the same time, public market volatility has caused private market holdings to make up a disproportionately large share of LP portfolios.
As a result of this imbalance, LPs are slowing or pausing new commitments to private funds, changing fund structures, and, in some cases, selling existing positions on the secondary market to rebalance and improve liquidity.
This environment directly impacts your GPs — less primary capital means longer fundraising timelines and deal cycles. As a private capital advisor, how can you cut through your LPs’ concerns and surface funds that are of interest to them?
Intapp DealCloud centralizes your firm and market intelligence so you can get a deeper understanding of your LPs and the opportunities that will appeal to them.
With DealCloud you can view an LP’s full commitment history and investment preferences from one centralized location — giving you the insights needed to identify GP funds that are a perfect fit for your LPs’ needs. And with sophisticated tracking capabilities, you can keep investors moving through the pipeline — and reduce the risk of your GPs getting stuck in extended, 18–24 month fundraising cycles.
DealCloud also simplifies the secondary sales process by giving you full visibility into all LP engagement history — even across different teams.
Challenge 2: Increased competition
As GP fundraising activity and LP secondary sales accelerate, the demand for private capital advisory services is surging, bringing more advisors into the market. Established investment banks are expanding beyond traditional M&A and capital markets work, while boutique firms are emerging to cater to niche sectors, alternative assets, and underserved areas like emerging managers.
This influx of advisors has created a highly competitive market, with many firms vying for the same mandates. In an environment where firms are offering similar services, having the right technology is the key to delivering the highly personalized client service and exceptional outcomes that will differentiate you from your competitors.
DealCloud makes it easier to stay a step ahead by giving your advisors access to relationship intelligence, fund details, and historical deal information.
For example, AI-powered features like relationship signals provide advisors with actionable, real-time network updates and market developments so they can stay in the know and proactively engage with clients in a more personal, meaningful way. And with relationship strength scores, your advisors will know exactly who to tap to introduce new alternative investments to your LPs.
Advisors can also quickly reference all past fundraising support provided to your GPs.
Together, these features give you a competitive edge by helping your advisors provide outstanding service and bespoke solutions that exceed client expectations.
Challenge 3: Siloed data and manual processes
Private capital advisors need to work with many different types of data, from GP fund and portfolio company details to LP commitments and secondary information. Much of that information, however, lives in emails, disconnected systems, and spreadsheets — and is managed using slow, manual processes. This makes it difficult and time-consuming for advisors to find the accurate, real-time data and insights they need to complete everyday tasks, develop creative solutions for their clients, and provide fast, efficient service.
Many firms turn to “generic” CRM systems to address these challenges, only to find that they don’t offer integrations or functionality that effectively meet the needs of private capital advisors.
DealCloud was developed to support the unique needs of private capital industry professionals — not manufacturing and retail companies. It connects your firmwide intelligence, then integrates real-time insights into your existing workflows so your advisors always have the right information at the right time.
Advisors can get even deeper insights by integrating market intelligence from top third-party industry data sources, including Preqin and PitchBook, directly into DealCloud. With these integrations, your advisors can make smarter, data-driven decisions and find new opportunities by analyzing market intelligence alongside your firm’s proprietary information — no manual data imports required.
DealCloud for private capital advisory also reduces manual work — and frees up time to service clients — with features like zero-entry data capture, which automatically adds contact, company, and relationship activity directly into DealCloud so your advisors don’t have to.
Elevate client service and outcomes with Intapp DealCloud
In today’s increasingly complex and competitive private capital landscape, success hinges on your ability to move fast and deliver personalized service at scale — two things you can’t do effectively when your data is siloed and managed using manual processes.
Intapp DealCloud equips your private capital advisors with the AI-powered insights, automated workflows, and tools they need to move quickly and deliver outcomes that exceed client expectations. Learn more about how DealCloud can help your firm thrive.