I was fortunate to interview for AltsTech Ankur Agarwal, Cofounder and CTO of PE Front Office, and author of the new book, Alternative Investments Technology: Bridging the Gap.
 

Personal and Professional Background

What’s your background? How did you end up in your seat today?

Well, it’s been a ride! I began my career 25 years ago as a technology consultant at Sapient, working closely with many global firms like Lloyds of London, Hilton Hotels, Avis & News International. That role gave me experience with how complex and messy at times enterprise systems can be. Later, I moved to Actis, a private equity firm, where I was responsible for implementation and integration of their global business systems: including fund accounting, fund reporting, investment management, investor relationship, data warehouse etc. The challenge at hand was to implement and integrate pre-existing as well as new systems and make them work seamlessly. I kept thinking, there has to be a better way. That thought eventually led Anup Adlakha and I to co-found PE Front Office, a SaaS platform purpose-built for private equity, venture capital, and private debt firms.

What inspired you to write your new book, Alternative Investments Technology: Bridging the Gap?

Honestly, the idea really came from years of working alongside fund managers who kept running into the same set of questions when it came to technology: Where do we start? What’s worth automating? Should we build our own systems or buy off-the-shelf? With time the bigger realization was that these questions weren’t just about technology – they reflected deeper dilemmas firms face when navigating change.

In my work, I kept seeing the same six core dilemmas pop up:

•   What to automate? – figuring out which processes are worth automating and which still need the human touch.
• Build vs. buy? – and if you buy, how much should you customize?
• Where to run these systems? – on-premises or move to the cloud?
• Cost vs. value – how do you measure ROI when the returns from automation aren’t always immediate?
• Ease of access vs. security – how do you ensure systems are secure without making them a nightmare to use?
• How to roll out change? – do you go for a big bang transformation or take it step by step?

There wasn’t a practical guide that addressed these dilemmas from both the business and technology perspectives – something that helped fund managers make these tough calls without getting lost in tech jargon or high-level theory. So, I wrote this book I wish I had when I was on the other side of the table. It’s full of lessons learned, mistakes made, and practical frameworks to help firms chart their own path forward.

Please give us an overview of your firm. 
 

PE Front Office is a SaaS platform specifically designed for alternative investment firms. We help fund managers manage their entire investment lifecycle – right from deal origination to portfolio monitoring, fund administration, and investor reporting. Our clients span over 15 countries, from first-time fund managers to large multi-asset firms like Ares Asia, SQN VP, Anticus Partners, Norsad Capital, Invequity, Fireside Ventures, Edelweiss Alternatives & SIDBI.

Who are your peers/competitors, and how do you differ?

There are some great players in this space like Allvue, eFront, and Dynamo who offer end-to-end solutions for alternative investments. Then there are providers focussing on specific functions, for example, DealCloud (CRM, Deal Pipeline), iLevel (Portfolio Monitoring), LemonEdge (Fund Accounting & Reporting) and so on. My book also has an unbiased list of service providers covering front, middle, back office as well as end-to-end solutions. But what sets PE Front Office apart is how we balance flexibility with scale. We focus on making technology approachable – customizable where it counts, without slowing you down. Clients often tell us that we’re more of a partner than just a vendor – and that’s exactly how we like it. Many of our clients tell us they are able to consistently report to LPs within 7 days of quarter-end.

Technology and Private Markets

Many alternative investment firms are notoriously conservative in adopting new tech. Why do you think this is, and how do you persuade them to change?

It’s true. Private capital markets thrive on trust, relationships, human-capital and long-term thinking. That naturally makes firms cautious about shaking up their processes that have been followed for the last many years. Then the stakes are also high – nobody wants tech glitches messing with the confidence of stakeholders. I have learned that the best way to convince is to meet them where they are. We focus on solving real, actual pain points – like simplifying fund quarterly reporting, investor reporting or ensuring a single source of truth with respect to data and not selling cool tech for its own sake. 

We were approached by a Middle East based PE fund and we committed to them that the next quarterly report will be sent from the PE Front Office. I think our focus on solving their pain point persuaded them and we delivered as committed. Now we have a happy and confident customer using the system extensively for a lot of other functions too.  Small wins create trust, and that trust opens the door to bigger changes.

What do you see as the most underutilized technologies in private markets today?

Actually there are quite a few technologies sitting on the shelf when it comes to private capital markets, for example, NLP, Process Automation (RPA), API integrations, Predictive AI, Real-time data analytics and Blockchain. However, the two with most potential are NLP and Real-time data analytics. Imagine summarizing portfolio performance, generating investor reports, or even parsing through legal documents and due diligence material – NLP can do all of this. The ability to automatically turn complex financial data into clear, investor-friendly commentary is a game-changer. When it comes to data, most firms still wait for month-end or quarter-end reports to see the bigger picture. They still operate in batch cycles. Imagine automatically pulling in data from fund administrators, custodians, portfolio companies, market sources and having a consolidated view ready whenever you need it.  For one of our large Asia-based clients, we have enabled investor facing reports to be generated at the click of a button – transforming what was once a time-consuming quarterly task into an on-demand capability.

What trends in data infrastructure or analytics do you think will most significantly impact GP/LP operations in the next five years?

I think most of the work is happening in improving data accuracy, availability and analytics. I would say three things will happen and have most of the impact:

1. Real-time data aggregation – no more batch cycles and waiting for monthly reports to get a view of what’s going on.
2. Self-service analytics – empowering both GPs and LPs to slice and dice data without needing a data team.
3. AI-generated commentary– using AI models to help firms draft updates and commentaries based on live data, cutting down on the manual back-and-forth.

What are your unmet technology needs?  Places in your firm where you’re seeking a solution and haven’t found an appropriate one? These may indicate room for us to build or invest in a startup addressing that need.

Hmmm, interesting question! We are still looking to solve LP onboarding and seamless KYC for investors from different parts of the world. Automating the retrieval of financial data of portfolio companies from official sources remains a challenge due to varying regulations and data accessibility across countries. And ESG compliance –  It’s complex, evolving fast, and there’s no truly smart, dynamic system out there yet that does it all, catering to global needs.

What processes are you focused on improving?

Right now we are working on making our reporting more AI-powered. We are also focusing on making our platform more interoperable with other systems, e.g., fund accounting systems.

Product Philosophy and Innovation

How do you balance the need for customization vs. scalability when designing solutions for PE/VC clients?

In the early years, customization was more of a challenge. But over time, as our product has matured, the need for heavy customization has dropped significantly. Our core system is now robust and deep, and our framework makes it easy to tailor client-specific changes where needed. Things like reports or workflows can be easily adjusted to fit each firm’s way of working. This way, we offer flexibility without losing the benefits of scale.

What’s the most surprising use case for your platform you’ve seen from a client?

One that stands out is a specialized asset manager focused on fixed income strategies, particularly in emerging markets. What surprised us was how they adapted our platform, originally designed for private equity, venture capital and private credit workflows, to manage their bond portfolios and investment mandates. They customized it to essentially apply private markets technology to a very different asset class.

What’s one outdated assumption people in finance still have about technology that you wish you could correct?

“Technology cannot replace human capital in the private capital domain”. Yes, I also agree but technology can surely amplify it. A good part of human capital can be codified and that frees up investment teams, operations, and compliance professionals to focus on what really matters – judgment calls, relationship-building, strategy, filling out Captchas.

How do you see AI transforming our industry?  

I think AI will become like a quiet co-pilot – helping with things like creating deals from pitch decks, screening deals, spotting risks early, drafting reports and simplifying compliance work. It’s going to take the busywork off the team’s plates so they can focus on the big decisions that really need their expertise. The firms that learn how to blend human judgment with AI tools will definitely have an advantage.

How can institutional investors prepare themselves for the AI revolution? 

I would say first get your data in order. AI is only as good as the data that is fed to it. You should start experimenting probably first with Generative AI and then with Predictive AI.

If you were to start another company today in the alt-investments space, what problem would you solve?

I would build an AI agentic platform that could easily plug into existing alternative investment systems – whether it’s fund management software, CRM, portfolio monitoring tools, or investor portals. The idea would be to help firms add AI capabilities without having to overhaul their core systems.

This platform would work as a layer on top of their existing data, offering things like predictive insights, automated reporting, risk flagging, and even generating LP communications. Of course, to make that work well, you would need a level of data standardization or a centralized data warehouse to pull everything together – but once that’s in place, any firm could become AI-enabled much faster, without waiting for their core platforms to catch up. We are working in this direction and it’s a priority item of our near to mid term roadmap. 

What’s a technology trend you’re personally excited about, even if it’s still early for mainstream adoption in finance?

We have briefly discussed private capital firms leveraging Generative AI and then move on to Predictive AI. What would be really powerful beyond this is AI-driven scenario forecasting or planning to help firms analyze complex “what-if” scenarios, for example, sudden interest rate hikes, geopolitical shifts, new regulations and how this can impact their portfolios. It’s very early days but as AI gets better I think it’s not far when we would be able to see this kind of dynamic modelling in the finance space too.

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