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by Bailey McCann
Private Equity Strategies

As we discussed in an earlier issue of Private Equity Strategies, standardized reporting from GPs to LPs is a hot topic as both sides try to find common ground on information sharing. Standards like ILPA, coupled with new regulatory reporting requirements have staked out an early roadmap for disclosure, yet large institutional players often request more customized reporting.

Historically, GPs have sent out PDF documents, which allow for greater control of their information from the GP side. However, this often results in LPs having to re-key the information into a machine readable, more analysis friendly format, adding time and additional cost overhead to understanding their exposures.

IntraLinks® Holdings, a global technology provider is hoping to fill that gap with its new investor portal offering. IntraLinks Investor Portals is offered specifically for private equity, hedge fund and real estate firms as a means of offering fully controlled and branded, but machine-readable reporting documents. The portal platform is being launched at the SuperReturn private equity conference in Berlin on February 26. General availability for the service will begin in the second quarter of this year.

The portals will build on the existing capabilities of the IntraLinks platform, which already enables content sharing, and collaboration for many of the world's largest private equity and hedge funds. Firms can scale up their use of the IntraLinks platform and the portal as they grow or decided to evolve their reporting process.

For firms that offer multiple business lines, the portal will allow them to present a multi-branded portal based on product-specific investor access. Dashboard features are also available so that GPs will be able to tailor information flow out to specific investors.

"GPs were telling us that LPs want more information and they want that information delivered electronically," says Andre Boreas, Director of Product Marketing-Alternative Investments at IntraLinks in an interview with Private Equity Strategies.

Portal technology can also report back to GPs when investors have opened new information. "This feature is not only important to understand who is looking at your reports but it can also facilitate smarter business development. If you know a certain target has never looked at what you've sent, you probably don't need to waste the time visiting them," he says.

Investors can see all of their managers with a single login, but those managers are presented in folders that then open a potentially customized experience, letting funds stand out within larger platforms. "Ultimately, we want to move reporting forward into the current age, its 2013 and we're still bothering with PDFs. It doesn't make sense," Boreas says.

IntraLinks plans updates to the portal platform on the order of once per quarter. Future releases will add additional features and include new partnerships. The firm recently announced its partnership with TamaleRMS, and others are in the pipeline. Those relationships will be reflected through new features.

"There is a tendency on the part of successful technology providers, once they have created a well received product to sit back, but we are always going to reinvest to improve. We believe there are still significant technological problems to be solved in the industry and we plan to put forward solutions," he says.

Angel investors are cropping up everywhere, in the US it seems. They're even getting their own TV shows. As this infographic highlights, their contribution to new jobs in the US is significant. The number of angel Investors and the amount of of dollars they've invested have significantly increased over the last ten years, allowing aspiring entrepreneurs more opportunities than ever before to achieve success for their early stage companies. Angels are making most of their investments in the US, but the trend is catching on worldwide.