Scaling private markets growth for better investor experiences

Private assets are experiencing a massive surge in popularity and are expected to outperform public markets over the next five years. While significant growth brings opportunity, it also introduces challenges. Most notably, fund managers and administrators face a critical question: Can current investment systems and operations handle increasing complexity and higher investor volumes?

What factors are complicating operations for alternative investment firms?

One factor driving complexity is the accelerating lifecycle of alternative investments. A booming secondaries market offers much-needed liquidity, allowing participants to enter and exit funds earlier than traditional models allowed and driving a greater influx of investors.

This rapid turnover puts immense pressure on fund administrators to onboard new investors quickly, securely and efficiently and find ways to keep them invested. Whether institutional, wealth or retail, today’s investors expect a seamless digital process across their investment activities. Traditional methods using PDFs, physical signatures and endless email chains won’t cut it.

At the same time, firms face shifting and complex regulatory obligations. Manually processing background checks, identity verification and investor compliance requirements can not only delay onboarding, but also introduce operational risk and negatively impact the entire customer experience.

How is the influx of investors changing expectations for alternative investments?

Institutional players are no longer the only ones hunting for alternative yields. Individual retail investors are flooding the space. Instead of servicing a handful of accounts, fund managers are expected to juggle thousands of profiles – all of whom have higher standards for customer service based on their other financial experiences.

These investors not only expect immediacy, but also ease of use and convenience. They want data-driven, forward-looking insights on their portfolios, not static reporting. Institutional partners seek direct data feeds to run their own advanced risk models, as well as applicable insights to inform decisions across multiple portfolios.

Beyond healthy returns, an exceptional customer experience – seamless, secure, convenient and digital – is a key differentiating factor for private market investors evaluating fund managers.

How can firms scale investor servicing without increasing complexity?

Operational efficiency and customer satisfaction cannot be achieved with greater headcount. True scalability requires integrated financial technology. Digitizing, connecting and enabling private fund lifecycle automation – from onboarding, accounting and reporting to portfolio analytics, treasury and data management – helps support more consistent, seamless investor experiences.

For more frictionless investor servicing, FIS® Private Capital Suite (formerly Investran) integrates with a dedicated lifecycle management solution from FIS that helps automate fundraising, onboarding and regulatory compliance processes. This gives fund managers and administrators a branded portal for centralized communication with investors, supporting consistent experiences and the secure sharing of documentation and approval status.

Investors can subscribe to funds and commit capital digitally by filling out a simple, user-friendly webform. An integrated, global onboarding hub enables investors to submit checks for ID verification, AML, KYC and FATCA or CRS, and advanced investor screening to aid compliance with local regulations.

What is needed to support long-term private market growth?

To scale your operations for a superior client journey, you need the right strategic roadmap. Firms with a clear, practical strategy for streamlining workflows, improving data accuracy, simplifying regulatory compliance and modernizing alternative investment operations will be best positioned to lead the next phase of private markets growth.