The COVID-19 pandemic proved to be a hefty bargain for the investment community as investments in the alternative investments sector began dwindling substantially. And why not? The pandemic has dealt a series of decisive blows to almost every industrial sector with job slashes, salary cuts, and bankruptcies becoming increasingly common in the current business climate. However, the present-day predicament has seemingly marked a shift towards alternative investment pathways.
Alternate investments are basically financial assets that are set apart from traditional investment categories like stocks, bonds, or cash. These investment alternatives mostly comprise private equity, venture capital, hedge funds, managed futures, arts and antiques, commodities, and derivatives contracts. It could even include a number of tangible assets such as precious metals, precious stones, collectibles, etc.
Until now, alternative investment firms have felt the need but managed to avoid technological up-gradation as it has traditionally been a low-tech industrial tangent. However, the alternative ecosystem has been awakened from a state of low inertia as it now transitions from a low-tech vertical to a high-tech innovation summit.
The current business dynamics demand a robust and resilient investment strategy that utilized new-age technologies to stay ahead of the curve. Several new-age alternative Investment technology platforms such as PE Front Office are taking the business world by storm. By helping businesses manage the entire investment lifecycle with optimum efficacy, right from Deal Management – Investment Management – Portfolio Monitoring – Investor Management to Fund Administration.
Talking specifically about Deal Flow, next-gen AIF platforms like PE Front Office enable Alternate Investment Funds (AIFs) to efficiently sift through multiple deals to arrive at the winners while collaborating with geographically distributed teams. Such an unparalleled workflow feature ensures that consistent processes are followed across all deals through a simple and intuitive interface where it is possible to create deals using email, mobile apps, or Microsoft Outlook and Excel. Moreover, deal creation can also be automated using web or Google forms. These cutting-edge technology platforms may also offer due diligence workflows that serve as a compliance checklist for a deal to move across stages. This enables users to constantly monitor and track their deals across multiple stages right from prospecting, on to IC review, and to commitment.
In a nutshell, technology solutions can massively streamline Deal Flow for Alternative Investment Funds.To name a few features:
1. Helps in making the deal creation and management process automated, consistent and streamlined.
2. Assists in efficiently managing the due diligence process and progressing the deal through various stages.
3. Ensures that deal information is easily accessible by multiple stakeholders and deal team can collaborate efficiently.
4. Provides real-time analysis of data and generate comprehensive reports
5. Quickly assess the target company’s financial feasibility by capturing and analyzing detailed financial metrics.
6. Integrates well with other existing tools (e.g. Google Docs, One Drive etc)
It is imperative to enhance one’s tech capabilities and overall architectural stack for progressing in the new normal. To ensure that business teams focus on their core tasks, it is necessary to initiate an immediate digital transition for all industry cohorts with technology acting as the true enabler.