The silent crisis crippling private investment in family offices

Partner content

The private investment industry, fueled by trillions, is being held back by a dirty secret: its archaic data infrastructure. While AI and cutting-edge technology dominate headlines, the reality is that mountains of crucial investment data remain trapped in static documents, hindering scalability and slowing deal flow. This article discusses the actual cost of this data bottleneck and suggests how family offices can leverage AI-powered platforms to streamline their private investment operations.

What you need to know

  • Despite growing allocations to private markets, many family offices remain burdened by manual data processes and outdated systems that delay decisions and increase risk.
  • From missed opportunities to clerical errors, the inability to quickly access accurate investment data is undermining portfolio performance.
  • Modern family office software platforms like Mantle can help surface real-time insights and enable smarter reporting—helping family offices unlock the full potential of their private investments.

Investments Published on Simple June 5, 2025
By Mantle

In recent years, family offices have been stockpiling on private investments. A break away from the chaos in public markets, they are increasing their allocations to private markets for better returns and diversification. However, many are held back by manual data processes or outdated data systems that hinder their ability to make swift, data-driven decisions. This article explores these data bottlenecks and proposes solutions to optimise private investment operations.

Mountains of data, limited insights

While finding a safe haven in private investments, family office back offices struggle to keep up with managing these assets. They are buried in mountains of data scattered across PDFs, spreadsheets, and multiple systems.

For instance, a typical family office investment team faces the tedious task of manually logging into various investor portals to collect all the necessary documents. Then, they have to organise the information. That means hours dedicated to downloading files and verifying their accuracy. If discrepancies arise, team members must reach out to fund managers. That means a series of back-and-forth phone calls and emails to obtain missing documents or seek clarification. As a result, this time-consuming process limits the available amount of time for valuable insights and comprehensive analysis.

The actual cost of bottleneck

Relying on manual or outdated systems not only affects the investment teams but has a ripple effect on the rest of the operations. For one, it heightens the risk of errors and data inaccuracy—a missing or extra digit in a financial report can have significant implications. Moreover, making decisions based on the wrong data leads to missed opportunities and potential compliance issues later on.

Family offices are acutely aware of the importance of measuring the performance of their investments. That is why, in a survey,  Simple’s family office community clearly indicated their view that performance reporting is the most beneficial technological integration. Manual and outdated systems make it very difficult, if not impossible, to provide stakeholders with timely and accurate information.

Breaking the bottleneck with AI

To address these challenges, a solution like Mantle Portal offers family offices a simpler way to manage their private investments. The platform directly cuts through the challenges by automatically extracting and organising all the data from investment documents. That includes all capital calls, distributions, capital statements, K1s, financial statements, and more into a single, centralised dashboard. This eliminates the need for manual data entries and the time-consuming hassle of logging into multiple investor portals.

What about accuracy? Will the platform be able to pick up any discrepancies?  Well, one of Mantle Portal’s key strengths is traceability: users can track every number on their dashboard back to its original document source. (See demo video)

As far as creating performance reports, unlike static documents, Mantle Reports are dynamic, with customisable views and multi-currency support. Additional features include:

  • Investment position: The platform gives real-time portfolio snapshots to track overall portfolio metrics. At a glance, users can answer key questions such as: How is my overall portfolio performing? Which funds have the strongest performance? Which funds have the highest commitments?
  • Investment activity: Mantle uncovers real insights into what’s driving portfolio changes. The dashboard visually breaks down total changes in valuations. This allows users to understand exactly where their gains or losses are coming from, and be able to answer questions such as: Was my portfolio growth due to contributions or market appreciation? And, which fund had the biggest impact on portfolio value shift this quarter?
  • Cash management: This Mantle feature provides a consolidated view of capital calls, distributions, and total net cash flow, so that family offices know how cash movement is impacting their portfolio, at all times. That means, in a matter of minutes, family office can be able to answer questions such as: What is my portfolio’s total net cash flow this quarter? Or, which funds had the largest cash movements?

Enter Agentic AI

Mantle is at the forefront of integrating Agentic AI into private investment workflows. Unlike traditional AI, which operates within fixed rules, Agentic AI empowers systems to act autonomously—gathering data from multiple sources, making decisions, and taking action with minimal human oversight.

As part of this innovation, Mantle is launching the AI Analyst—an AI-native assistant purpose-built for family office teams. With it, you can ask natural language questions directly within the platform. Your AI Analyst will instantly surface relevant data or jumpstart your analysis in seconds.

Whether you’re tracking recent capital calls, summarising performance trends, or generating a Schedule of Investments, the AI Analyst eliminates the need to dig through documents or wrangle spreadsheets—dramatically accelerating your workflows.

The future of intelligence is here

Mantle’s AI Analyst isn’t just a new feature—it’s a glimpse into the future of private markets. Family offices that embrace Agentic AI tools will gain a distinct advantage: greater speed, sharper insights, and the ability to manage complexity at scale.

With Mantle leading the way, private investment management is evolving—faster, smarter, and fully AI-powered.

About Mantle
Mantle Portal simplifies the management of LP investments by consolidating information from all investor portals into a single centralised platform. The aggregation, coupled with automation does the undifferentiated heavy lifting, freeing you to focus on strategic decisions. Get a clear, real-time Schedule of Investments, enabling deep portfolio analysis against market trends. Drive alpha with smarter, faster insights, and reduce operational costs.

Unleash the power of your investment data with Mantle Portal Reports. By seamlessly integrating automated document collection and AI-powered data extraction, Mantle Portal converts unstructured documents into real-time investment intelligence for Fund LPs and their teams.

Premium Solutions
img
Family Office solutions

Our new Premium Service is a structured combination of high-touch services and technology-led solutions. Discover how this support framework allows future focused family offices to thrive.

Learn more

Written in partnership with

Mantle

Mantle

Artificial Intelligence

Mantle is a modern software solution for managing private assets, from cap tables to capital calls.

View Full Profile
Close
Lead Generation - Service Provider (v2)

Contact Mantle

Enter your details and we will connect you.

How soon would you ideally like a solution in place?

What type of family office are you?

What is your total AUM?

Where are you based?