Preqin a good value for private markets data
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
We use Preqin for benchmarking private equity and debt fund performance. Our firm offers a proprietary vintage fund program for PE and we use Preqin to assess its performance relative to peers. We also use Preqin to track industry flows, macro trends in private capital, and sizing the various asset and sub asset classes within private markets.
Pros
- Preqin does a great job in sizing the private markets and tracking their growth over time.
- Fund performance benchmarking and sourcing fund performance data
- Their weekly newsletters provide in-depth market commentary and straight-to-inbox insights on trends spanning the private markets
Cons
- When benchmarking, Preqin does not provide the 5th and 95th percentiles (only 25th, median, and 75th). It would be helpful if these were added.
- Some of their performance information is stale for the funds in the dataset. They could do better in terms of updating them in a more timely manner.
- There is no way to calculate performance on a 1, 3, 5 yr basis. Also, there is no way to measure returns against a public market equivalent benchmark.
Return on Investment
- My firm writes our own research reports on key trends impacting the private markets. Preqin provides us access to a deep and reputable data source which allows us to produce content for our clients.
- Preqin allows us to conveniently assess our firm's performance relative to the broader industry.
Usability
Alternatives Considered
PitchBook
Other Software Used
PitchBook