Preqin Buys Stake in Baxon as PE Industry Turns to Cloud

As the private equity industry moves from tracking performance through Excel to using cloud-based solutions, alternative assets research firm Preqin has formed a strategic partnership with software provider Baxon Solutions, which includes Preqin taking a significant minority stake in Baxon.

“A thing that’s becoming more and more important and more of a challenge, both for GPs and LPs, is getting good and timely info on performance of the individual companies in the portfolio,” says Mark O’Hare, CEO of Preqin.

GPs are under pressure both from a regulatory and investor standpoint to provide transparency into fund performance, and while collating data on Excel has been the norm, says O’Hare, it has its limitations. GPs and LPs see an increasing need for cloud-based systems that can more reliably, more easily and more quickly collate that info, as well as helping with valuations and analysis. Plus, these type of technologies can create economies of scale to save money in the long term.

Since Preqin saw this emerging need, the firm started looking a little over a year ago at software providers in this space and decided Baxon would be a good fit. O’Hare was impressed with Baxon’s technology in their cloud-based data analysis suite, and he thought Preqin would able to fill some of Baxon’s needs in terms of financial and sales resources, as well as having a large business infrastructure in place, especially in the U.S. and Asia where Baxon is limited.

“Baxon has a superb product offering tailored to meet the growing needs of private equity firms and their investors for granular financial information on their portfolio companies and funds, and includes some of the leading global firms among its clients,” says O’Hare. “Preqin is constantly striving for ways to improve the services we provide to our customers, and this partnership with Baxon does exactly that. Baxon’s products are highly relevant to Preqin’s customer base, and meanwhile Preqin’s established network, industry expertise and financial support will help Baxon strengthen its market-leading position.”

By working with Preqin, Baxon also hopes to accelerate its development and delivery of a comprehensive portfolio management and valuations platform for the private equity industry.

Partnering with Preqin, says Jorge Hansen, managing director of Baxon, “brings very significant synergies to our businesses. This will ultimately be reflected in a broader market reach and an enhanced combined offering of our Portfolio Monitoring and Valuation platform for the private equity industry. We believe that the timing for this partnership is perfect, as the industry urgently needs tools to manage a growing demand for transparency and granularity from their investors.”