By: Philitsa Hanson
Head of Product Management
July 24, 2025
Becoming a successful emerging private equity manager takes grit and resolve. You’re expected to deliver outsized returns, manage complex portfolios, meet rising investor demands, and look polished while doing it. The only catch is that you have a fraction of the resources that your larger peers have. While launching and building a fund can be thrilling, it is also a demanding climb that tests even the most ambitions professionals. As an emerging manager you’re often building the the plane while you’re flying it.
In the battlefield that is the private equity landscape, having the right investment offering is only part of the equation. A modern, purpose-built tech stack is just as critical to differentiation and long-term success when up against larger, more well-resourced firms. From selecting an investor portal that enhances transparency and client experience, to adopting workflow tools that streamline operations and efficiency, Allvue understands the needs of new and emerging private equity firms. We’ve created tools with emerging managers in mind:
- A Private Equity Buyer’s Guide, designed to help emerging managers like you evaluate your operational needs and make smart, future-proof technology decisions. Download our guide here.
- A Private Equity Essentials package that bundles our core set of fund accounting, investor relations, and portfolio monitoring tools. It’s purpose-built for firms under $1 billion AUM who need real infrastructure, fast. Learn more.
If you’re just starting out or starting to feel the strain of scaling, keep reading. We’ve worked with hundreds of firms on this journey. We know where the pitfalls are and can guide you around them.
Spreadsheets Don’t Scale
Early-stage firms often start with spreadsheets to track finance and operational items, email for as a front line for investor communication, and a few additional basic tools cobbled together to manage operations. These tools are fine for a firm starting out but fall short as firms scale and quickly need to be replaced.
Like any emerging manager that’s poised to grow, you reach a moment where you realize you’ve been racing in first gear, but now it’s time to build a bigger, faster engine. How do you know you’ve reached that moment? Reporting becomes a scramble. Manual errors creep into calculations. Investor communications feel amateurish, especially when the investor comes from the retail or institutional space. And that “lean and scrappy” infrastructure starts costing you credibility with your LPs.
The operations that worked when you had five investments and two team members no longer support you properly when you’re juggling a dozen portfolio companies and fundraising for your next fund.
We’ve seen this before and the turning point is always the same. Firms realize it is time for a change when growing pains reveal that scalable, streamlined operations aren’t just a nice-to-have. They are essential to compete, win, and grow.
Pressures Emerging Managers Can’t Ignore
Our Private Equity Buyer’s Guide outlines three challenges that come up repeatedly when we talk with firms on the rise:
- The Market is Unforgiving: You’re navigating market volatility, fewer deals are coming in, and there is more competition for capital with established firms with longer track records. Larger managers are also sitting on assets longer, and LPs are getting anxious about returns. That puts even more pressure on you to show differentiation and deliver value quickly.
- LPs Want More and They Want It Now: Reporting expectations have skyrocketed. Investors expect real-time access to performance data, seamless portals, fast responses, and a clear story about how you’re creating value. If your back office can’t keep up, you’re risking your next capital raise.
- Everyone is Talking About AI: It seems like a forgone conclusion. Whether it’s automating reporting, analyzing large data sets, or surfacing portfolio insights faster, AI is creeping into every part of the fund lifecycle. If your infrastructure isn’t built to plug into those capabilities, you’re going to fall behind.
What Does Your Firm Actually Need?
This is where many firms get stuck. You know you need scalable operations. But what exactly should you look for? Another point solution to complicate your tech stack? A fully integrated platform? Something in between?
Here’s the short answer: Emerging firms should look for tools that support existing workflows now, but that are also built for scale. Firms should also look for a tech provider with dedicated expertise, with solutions built on years of industry experience and deep knowledge of the space. That’s harder to find than it sounds.
In Allvue’s Private Equity Buyer’s Guide, we walk through six categories to help firms evaluate tech partners:
- Workflow Fit: Does it automate your day-to-day accounting, investor comms, and performance reporting?
- Scalability: Can it handle the complexity of your business when you double AUM, add asset types, or bring in co-investments?
- Future-Proofing: Will it evolve with new regulations, asset types, and reporting requirements?
- Integration: Can it connect accounting, CRM, and portfolio data into one system—or will you be stuck reconciling across multiple systems?
- Implementation & Support: Does your tech provider know private equity, or are you just another account?
- AI Readiness: Is the platform already leveraging AI in ways that matter to you? And if not, is it on the roadmap?
In other words, don’t just pick software. Pick a partner.
What is Private Equity Essentials?
We’ve taken everything we know about what growing firms need and packaged it into a streamlined offering we call Private Equity Essentials. This package of solutions is tailored for firms under $1B in committed capital who are wrestling with spreadsheets and point solutions and want to run like an institutional-grade operation. Here is what is included:
- Fund Accounting: It’s a multi-currency general ledger that includes detailed financial reporting and cash management, all without having to rely on error-prone manual workflows.
- Investor Relations: Your LPs will think you have a full Investor Relations team. Our platform delivers automated notices, secure portals, customizable dashboards, and integrated CRM tools that empower you to tell your firm’s story with polish and professionalism.
- Portfolio Monitoring: Track, analyze, and report on portfolio company performance in one place. We give you centralized data, built-in reporting templates, and KPI tracking that transforms raw numbers into actionable insights.
The best part? It’s all on one platform that scales with you and gives you a single source of truth.
Why This Matters
Operational inefficiency is one of the most avoidable reasons firms lose momentum. We’ve seen it sink fundraising, strain teams, and cause unnecessary friction with LPs.
The good news is that fixing it doesn’t require hiring an army or spending a fortune. But it does require making smart, strategic decisions early, like choosing systems that are:
- Built for private equity (not adapted from public market or generic tools)
- Modular and scalable
- Supported by experts who understand your workflows
- Flexible enough to integrate with fund admins, new data sources, and future systems
Allvue has helped hundreds of firms implement scalable infrastructure that gets them out of the operational weeds and back to focusing on what they do best: investing and creating value.
A Quick, Relatable Case Study
One of our clients, a Canadian PE firm focused on natural resources, was doing most of their back office in Excel. Reporting was manual and delivering investor notifications were painful tasks. Their investor portal was also outdated and slow. They knew it wasn’t sustainable.
With Allvue, they implemented fund accounting and investor relations solutions that actually talk to each other. They got a customized implementation roadmap, workflows that eliminated duplication, and reporting that made their LPs happy (and confident). The result was less stress, fewer errors, and a platform that’s ready for their next capital raise.
Final Thoughts: Your Operational Infrastructure Is Your Differentiator
Emerging managers are expected to punch above their weight. The firms that win aren’t just the ones that find good deals. They’re the ones who run tight, scalable, and investor-friendly operations from the start.
Private Equity Essentials gives you the tools to do just that. Whether you’re preparing for your second fund, adding new strategies, or just trying to give your LPs a better experience, this is the kind of infrastructure that helps firms grow with confidence.
Want To Learn More?
We’d love to help you figure out what’s next. Whether it’s a quick conversation, a live demo, or a deeper roadmap session, our team is here to support your journey. Request a demo or schedule a session to speak with a product specialist.
More About The Author
Philitsa Hanson
Head of Product Management
Philitsa Hanson is Allvue's Head of Product for Equity and Fund Administration where she oversees product strategy and delivery for private equity and accounting solutions. For over 20 years, she has architected and launched front-to-back platforms across capital markets, spanning order management, investment accounting, fund accounting, and consolidated back-office workflows. Philitsa has led large-scale transformational change programs at global firms to drive end-to-end operational excellence. A respected voice in the industry, Philitsa speaks on operational improvements and collaborates with advisory boards to help shape the future of capital markets.
