PEARonline aims to become the industry standard web-based document service for private equity fund reporting and fund raising because it is easy to use, designed purely for private equity, and has straightforward and cost-effective pricing.
The lack of an industry standard service to date has caused frustration for LPs and GPs alike. For GPs, there has been no clear choice: build a custom solution or buy in from a third party? Customise a generic “virtual data room” service or lock yourself in further to a back office software package? PEARonline is ready to use, designed purely for private equity and entirely independent of financial reporting systems.
LPs waste too much of their precious time going to multiple websites for their private equity portfolio, with multiple passwords and user names, different log in procedures, and varying ways of navigating to documents and downloading them. With PEARonline, LPs can log into a single website with one username and one password, and access information from all of their GPs using the service in a single session.
1. Ease of use
PEARonline is easy to use because it is designed purely for the private equity fund raising and fund reporting. Setting up a new fund is quick and painless because all of the needs of the private equity industry are built right in, in contrast with generic “virtual data rooms” where GPs can spend considerable time customising to private equity’s particular needs. For LPs, this standardised format means there is no learning curve with each new fund.PEARonline was designed by an experienced private equity practitioner rather than a software programmer. Simon Thornton’s 22 years in the industry includes twelve years as a GP and an LP with BC Partners and Landmark Partners; he has seen the issues of fund raising and fund reporting from both sides of the fence.
2. Straightforward, reasonable pricing
PEARonline has a fixed price per fund per year, subject to generous “reasonable use” limits designed to protect all users of the system - no GPs have yet come close to approaching these limits. It is easy to know what you will pay, rather than trying to guess based on estimates of your data storage, number of individual LPs, data transfer and so on. The price is fixed for the life of the fund when it is registered on the service, so there can be no unpleasant price hikes once you are up and running. Obviously there are no charges for LPs, and no initial “set-up” fees.The rates for a fund set up on PEARonline in 2008 are $1,500 per year for dollar-denominated funds, €1,250 per year for euro funds and £850 per year for Sterling funds. GPs of funds denominated in other currencies can pick one of the three. These charges are low compared with other services because PEARonline’s business model is built on serving a large number of customers as it becomes the industry standard. They can be reasonable because the service’s ease of use means that very limited user support is necessary.
Success to date
January 2008 marked the start of PEARonline’s second year of operations. Simon Thornton, Managing Director of PEARonline, comments that “We are very pleased that during 2007 GPs and LPs have come to rely on PEARonline’s two key benefits, ease of use and cost-effectiveness, and as a result expect even stronger growth in 2008.”Fifteen private equity GPs in Europe, the US and Asia have committed to use PEARonline: these include 3i, August Equity, Avigo Capital Partners, Bridges Community Ventures, ECI, JOHCM Private Equity and Mezzanine Management.
Over 1,250 individual LPs worldwide can now access funds that report through PEARonline. These LPs include a significant proportion of major European investors and a rapidly growing group of US, Middle Eastern and Asian LPs. Feedback from investors has been extremely positive; they particularly appreciate the ease of use and speed of registration, as well as the ability to access funds managed by multiple GPs from a single login.
For more information please contact Simon Thornton via email, set@pearonline.com, or by telephone on +44 20 7258 7706
Background to PEARonline
PEARonline was established by Simon Thornton, who has 22 years’ experience in private equity as a GP, an LP and in information businesses. Between 1985 and 1988 he worked in the London offices of Venture Economics, then in 1988 he co-founded Initiative Europe, one of the leading private equity publishing/information services businesses in the region. In 1994 he joined BC Partners, a major European buy-out group now managing in excess of $12 billion, where he was responsible for fund raising and investor relations in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Subsequently he headed the European activities of US secondaries firm Landmark Partners for five years. He sat on the Professional Standards Committee of the European Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (EVCA) for eleven years and led the task force responsible for producing the Association’s Governing Principles.PEARonline’s website was developed by Evolving Media, a UK-based design, internet and software consultancy established in 1999 and now employing over 30 staff. Evolving Media has extensive experience of developing and managing security-critical web applications for clients including banks and fund managers. The company has developed a proprietary Content Management System which forms the core of PEARonline’s service.
