LPs are about to start firing GPs over technology.
Not performance. Technology.
A recent CSC survey of 500 funds reveals what's really frustrating limited partners in 2025:
Poor investor portal technology ranks as their #1 complaint…. ahead of communication issues and performance problems.
3 in 4 LPs want daily portfolio updates. Their biggest gripe isn't market volatility or missed targets. It's that they can't get the data they need when they need it.
In other words: Your investor portal is now your biggest competitive differentiator or your biggest liability.
Technology is now an industry bottleneck. But no GP can fix it alone.
Here's what's really happening behind those survey numbers:
LPs have been trained by consumer technology to expect everything instantly. When they can check their personal Schwab account in real-time, track their Uber driver's location to the minute, and get push notifications about every Netflix charge, quarterly PDF reports feel like sending smoke signals.
Nearly half of LPs say they're not getting the detailed data they need.
The numbers tell the brutal story: 74% expect live or daily portfolio updates, 72% want real-time operational data, and 44% are flat-out dissatisfied with current reporting levels.
The smart money is already moving. 63% of forward-thinking GPs are expanding their tech frameworks, 50% are investing specifically in AI, and 51% plan to increase strategic outsourcing to get there faster.
The Talent Wall
But here's where it gets interesting. And where most GPs are about to hit a wall.
The talent to execute this transformation simply doesn't exist at scale. Nearly 40% of GPs rank hiring and retention as their top concern over the next three years.
So we have LPs demanding better data, delivered through better technology, but GPs can't find the people to build it. It's like trying to process Amazon's Black Friday traffic through a 1990s dial-up modem - and calling your uncle Doug for help because he spent a few years working in San Francisco.
The Coordination Problem
The biggest key to all this: the industry faces a three-way coordination problem that individual GPs can't solve alone.
The current model forces LPs to accept whatever portal, data structure, and reporting cadence their GPs choose. But LPs manage portfolios across dozens of GPs. They deserve consolidated views, standardized metrics, and direct data feeds that no single GP can provide.
Already, 70% of LPs say working with reputable service providers positively influences their perception of fund managers, which means your technology strategy is your client relationship strategy.
Some smart tech companies are starting to see the opportunity and building for LPs first: portfolio aggregation platforms, direct data feeds, reporting APIs that LPs can plug into their own systems.
The question isn't whether this shift will happen. It has to, eventually. Someone is going to build this infrastructure.
The only question is how fast.
This is why we’re gathering LP leaders, tech executives, and platform builders in Toronto on October 9 for our LP Technology Summit.
How do we build technology infrastructure that serves both LPs and GPs effectively? What standards and protocols enable seamless data flow across the ecosystem?
The opportunity is massive: LP-direct technology that integrates with GP systems, creating better outcomes for everyone.
It’s a chance to accelerate the next decade of private market progress. Please join us.
Hit reply and send your thoughts if any of this resonates. I’d love to hear from you.
by Marc Andrew
INFRA TAKES (who’s building what)
Goldman Sachs will buy up to $1B in T. Rowe Price stock while launching co-branded target-date funds that embed private markets into 401(k) plans. The collaboration targets mid-2026 launch across retirement and wealth channels. The big idea: Asset managers will partner instead of compete for the retirement market - Goldman brings private market origination, T. Rowe Price brings recordkeeping relationships and 401(k) distribution. Both avoid the decade-long slog of building what the other already owns. The bottleneck has shifted from product innovation to plan sponsor adoption.
Nasdaq Ventures invested in Juniper Square, the fund ops platform managing $1T+ across 40,000 funds. The partnership aims to bring better data solutions and liquidity infrastructure to private markets - imagine exchange-grade transparency for an asset class that still runs on PDFs and quarterly reports. Nasdaq gets distribution into private markets tech stack, Juniper Square gets public markets data expertise. The play: building the plumbing that turns private market data into something resembling real-time analytics.
Vanguard hired Bill Stout from Nuveen to lead private markets strategy, marking the index giant's push beyond low-cost public markets. Stout brings alternatives expertise as Vanguard builds direct sourcing capabilities. When you're managing $8T+ and public market fees keep compressing, alternatives become existential. Vanguard wil aim to provide clients private exposure… but can it do so without losing the cost advantage that made them abandon active managers?
The London Stock Exchange received FCA approval for its Private Securities Market - the first PISCES venue enabling liquidity auctions for private companies. Private firms control auction frequency and investor access while employees get tax-advantaged share sales. The big idea: London is building infrastructure to capture European private market secondary flow using its existing public market tech stack. Secondary trading infrastructure will be a competitive battleground as private markets scale.
BlackRock launched GP/LP Solutions after absorbing HPS' $190B credit platform - integrating fund financing, secondaries, and private equity under one roof. The timing hits as GPs face liquidity crunches and managing multiple financing relationships becomes expensive. The big idea: BlackRock can lose money on fund financing to win entire GP relationships, competing on lifecycle value while traditional credit shops fight deal-by-deal. The next five years determine whether private markets become consolidated platforms or interoperable networks where specialists connect through APIs.
Nuveen Private Capital secured minority investments from Hunter Point Capital and Temasek, with Temasek providing long-term capital commitments to the $87B platform's strategies. The partnership validates Nuveen's 2023 bet on combining Churchill and Arcmont into a global private credit powerhouse that's deployed $21B across 400+ companies in 18 months. The big idea: Sovereign and institutional capital is backing scaled private credit platforms over boutique managers - when you're serving 5,000+ investors globally, operational infrastructure becomes as important as investment performance.
OVERHEARD IN PMF CONVERSATION THIS WEEK:
“Growth credit is that area that gets most of the attention not because that's where most of the assets are deployed, but because that's where the real thinking is doing that the banks aren't doing or the sponsor finance aren't doing…”
“Right now we’re evaluating, two or three platforms to on the AI automation of receiving GP reports. Every quarter we get 60, 70 GP reports. There are some interesting platforms out there, where you just feed the ingestion of those reports. Not only will it get it all into a warehouse, but then you can also they they also have a built in their own version of a BI where you can now slice and dice that.”
“I’ll tell you what I think is the most interesting use case for technology in private markets: secondaries”
There is no new wirehouse being created in the US. Period. But there are about 10 new wirehouse-sized allocators to alts that will emerge out of the independent wealth space.”
NEXT UP FROM THE PRIVATE MARKETS FORUM:
