Why Preqin Fails Emerging Managers—And How Altss Re-Writes the Playbook

On paper Preqin is the “industry standard” for private-markets data. In practice, anyone raising a sub-$500 million fund quickly discovers a brutal mismatch. Preqin was engineered for mega-allocators, refreshed on Freedom-of-Information timetables, and short on usable contacts. I learned that lesson the hard way while running a sub-$100 million raise that produced zero warm leads despite months of outreach. Here’s the evidence.

1 Institutional DNA: Built for $50 M–$100 M Tickets

Preqin’s core investors are public pensions, insurers, and sovereigns that routinely write $50 million-plus checks—for example:

• Texas County & District Retirement System pledged $50 million to an H.I.G. Capital buyout fund (Pensions & Investments, 23 May 2025).
• New York State Common Retirement Fund committed $50 million to a private-equity vehicle run by Hamilton Lane (NYS Comptroller press release, 7 Nov 2023).

When your target check size is $2–15 million, these LPs can’t even enter the conversation.

2 Stale by Design: FOIA-Driven Data Lags

Academic analysis confirms Preqin “primarily sources data from U.S. public pension fund investments via FOIA” and therefore suffers from significant reporting delays (SSRN #5211381, 2024).
Another study notes that FOIA dependence means “Preqin may be missing high-performing funds that do not have public-pension investors” (SSRN #4283853, 2025).

Emerging managers operate on news cycles measured in weeks—new CIO hires, mandate pivots, portfolio exits. Those signals rarely surface in Preqin until months later, if at all.

3 What Actual Users Say

“Poor quality of contacts—emails usually bounce … no contact information for prospecting, hard-to-read interface.” —G2 reviewer, Preqin Pro (June 2023).

If verified users complain that emails bounce, the data clearly isn’t fundraising-ready.

4 Strategic Shift Toward Mega-Funds

In July 2024 BlackRock agreed to acquire Preqin for ~$3.2 billion to feed data into its Aladdin ecosystem, underscoring a focus on trillion-dollar asset managers rather than nimble GPs (BlackRock press release, 1 Jul 2024).
Bloomberg framed the deal as a “private-data push” to serve institutional giants.

5 What Sub-$500 M Funds Actually Need in 2025

• Ticket-size fit: LPs writing $500 k–25 M checks—largely absent from Preqin’s universe.
• Family-office depth: flexible capital willing to back first-time managers—again, largely missing.
• Live intent signals: hiring bursts, strategy shifts, fresh RFPs—FOIA cycles are quarters late.
• Warm-path mapping: who on your advisory board can open a door—Preqin offers only static spreadsheets.
• Hard-verified contacts: sub-0.5 % bounce—G2 reviews show Preqin fails this test.

6 Altss—Purpose-Built for Emerging & Mid-Market Raises

Altss was engineered from day one for managers raising under $500 million:

• 6,000+ family offices and 1.5 million LP contacts, re-verified every 30 days (bounce < 0.3 %).
• OSINT signal engine that scrapes hiring moves, allocation news, portfolio exits—updated daily.
• Predictive Relationship Graph (Q4 2025) that surfaces warm introductions across GPs, LPs, firms, and deals.
• Flat $15,500/year with founder-friendly terms and a free trial for qualified GPs.

Verdict

Preqin is excellent for benchmarking billion-dollar funds—but it misfires for anyone raising under $500 million. Institutional-sized tickets, FOIA-lagged updates, and user-reported contact failures turn your outreach into a time sink. Altss delivers real-time OSINT, family-office coverage, and live relationship graphs—the exact intelligence emerging managers need to close faster.

Ready to leave static spreadsheets behind?
Book a demo with Altss and step onto the frontier of fundraising.