A buoyant private equity market has powered the growth of Addleshaw Goddard’s transactional practice, as the focus on ESG came further to the fore and cross-border deal activity also experienced significant uplift.  “ESG firmly took centre stage in 2021. This has been driven by the increased “mainstreaming” of impact funds and B corp certified GPs,” says Jan Gruter, partner in AG’s Investment Management group, “The increased focus on ESG has come from a number of angles: LPs, the workforce in GPs pushing for change and of course the regulators with a myriad of ESG related regulatory changes coming online, most notably the EU

Fund managers’ ever-evolving regulatory and contractual obligations generate complex compliance requirements that can be simplified by technology focused on contract automation and intelligence.  “In recent years, we saw increased demand from our asset management clients for a technology tool that would make compliance with fund documentation simpler,” says Bridget Deiters, senior managing director & international lead at Ontra. “In March 2021, we launched Insight, a purpose-built software solution for fund managers, to address that demand and to help our customers track and manage their complex regulatory and contractual compliance obligations.”  Deiters also notes that compliance isn’t just a regulatory requirement

The year ahead promises to be exciting as continued interest in private markets persists and the market uncertainty creates potential for investment opportunity. “We know there’s going to be continued interest in digital transformation of the private markets ecosystem, in how we’re onboarding funds, how we’re serving investors and how we’re serving dealmaking teams,” comments Ken Bisconti, co-head, Intralinks, “We plan to continue to invest in our ability to serve all of those needs within an integrated suite of capabilities which is also surrounded by first-class, high-quality services.” He explains how the firm aims to contribute to the growing efficiency

Stiff competition in the private equity world means deals are being done at incredible speed. In this context, managers need their advisers to work at pace; across jurisdictions, service lines and time zones, to ensure those deal timetables can be met.  “These goals can only be met by co-ordinated, technologically-savvy law firms that understand the PE industry as a whole. Our clients needs have continued to drive Ogier’s private equity offering forward, both in terms of expertise and depth, across all of our key PE jurisdictions,” declares Richard Daggett, partner in the private equity team at Ogier.  Approaching private equity

As automation allows private equity firms to achieve scalability, the tightening of data governance processes behind the technology becomes indispensable. Further, best-in-class operating models are becoming more accessible to smaller organisations.  “As the industry grows and the inflow of capital increases, firms are increasingly looking to scale,” outlines Travis Broad, director, private markets at Lionpoint Group, “this leads them to identify areas of resistance around manual processes that consistently require more and more people to action.” Hence, the need for automation is elevated. There is also an abundance of new and exciting technologies that seek to automate operational areas of private equity