Limited partners are an important source of private equity capital for commercial real estate projects. But while LPs may not participate directly in a project, they need to be kept in the loop about its progress.

Meanwhile, the general partners managing the funds directly might not have the bandwidth to communicate regularly with investors. Because of this, firms hire investment relations professionals to guide LPs through the onboarding process and keep them updated.

In today’s digital age, GPs and IRs can leverage technology to ensure that LPs can view their investment information easily and at their convenience, rather than relying on back-and-forth email communications or having to dig through spreadsheets, said Julia Benichou, product marketing manager at real estate investment platform Agora.

Agora’s platform uses artificial intelligence capabilities to help GPs and IRs create a smooth experience for LPs.

“Investor expectations have risen, and the only way that firms can grow their business and meet investors’ needs are with technology tools,” Benichou said. “No one is going to invest with you if you’re not going to show them any information.”

Benichou shared how technology can help create a seamless investing experience and build strong relationships with LPs.

Streamline The Onboarding Process

General partners routinely share documents, including a subscription agreement containing the investment’s terms and conditions. Because this document can be lengthy and complex and may need multiple reviewers, GPs and IRs who aren’t streamlining the process risk dragging out the review longer than necessary, which can hurt their relationships with LPs, Benichou told Bisnow in May.

Agora’s Smart Questionnaire provides these documents in an interactive format, so that investors can focus on the relevant sections. They can be sent to multiple parties simultaneously for review at their convenience, and the process allows for easy correction in case of an error.

The Smart Questionnaire incorporates conditional logic, or actions that are generated based on the recipient’s responses. This helps create a personalized experience and ensures that investors see only the questions and prompts that pertain to them, Benichou said.

“If an investor is seeing sections that they don’t need to fill out, they may get confused and fill them out by accident,” she said. “Presenting just the portions of the document that the investor would need to see, and hiding what they don’t, helps to avoid issues and enhance user experience.”

Present Data With Visuals

Metrics investors need access to include the current or projected values of their portfolios, Benichou said.

The dashboard of Agora’s Investor Portal displays graphs and charts that showcase the amount invested in a portfolio and the distributions received, and it also allows professionals to showcase new opportunities for investors. The portal also allows investors to view metrics and updates on all of their investments.

The GP or IR can also input reports, subscription agreements, tax forms and other information onto each investor’s portal from the back-end, and it will be available immediately to the investor.

Benichou emphasized the importance of giving LPs the transparency they need through technology.

“Agora is a centralized system that enables you to see all of your data, so LPs are never asking what a certain dollar amount means or where it comes from; they just know,” she said.

Stay Organized And Communicative

If GPs and IRs are keeping data solely on Microsoft Excel and need to gather information requested by an investor, compiling the report manually can be time-consuming and risk having inaccuracies, Benichou said.

“Investors can’t see the bigger picture at any time, and it ends up becoming scattered data on different spreadsheets, with nothing consolidated,” she said.

She added that failing to communicate information in a timely manner can erode trust. If LPs can’t rely on their team to respond to a question or provide a report quickly, then they may question if the private equity fund is right for them.

“In this day and age, you need to provide a best-in-class experience, and if you’re doing things manually, you’re not going to attract higher net worth individuals or bigger investors if you can’t be professional,” she said. “The main goal should be to keep investors happy and confident that you’re guiding them in the right direction.”

Agora’s Investor CRM enables GPs or IRs to communicate updates about investments as well as log and track their email and phone correspondence in one place. They can also use the CRM to find investment information for all of their LPs.

Benichou said that as technology continues to advance, portals will create even more transparency for LPs, “remove the learning curve” for GPs and IRs and help them stand out from competitors.

“AI is changing the game,” Benichou said. “While managing family and friends’ portfolios is one thing, if you want to scale and grow your business and build a strong reputation, you need to have the right tools.”

This article was produced in collaboration between Studio B and Agora. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.