Glossary

A comprehensive list of terms for the things related to fundraising and OSINT with clear definitions

3(c)(1) Fund
A 3(c)(1) fund is a private fund exemption that avoids Investment Company Act registration by limiting investors (generally) to 100 beneficial owners.
3(c)(7) Fund
A 3(c)(7) fund is a private fund exemption limited to Qualified Purchasers, typically enabling broader investor counts than 3(c)(1).
Accredited Investor
An accredited investor is an individual or entity that meets regulatory income, net worth, or professional criteria to invest in certain private offerings.
Active Fundraising
Active fundraising means a manager is currently soliciting LP commitments for a fund within a defined fundraising period.
Activism
Activism is an investment strategy where capital is deployed with the explicit intent to influence a company’s governance, strategy, or capital allocation decisions.
AI Due Diligence Tools
Machine learning systems used by allocators to analyze GP track records, detect financial anomalies, review fund documents, monitor portfolio signals, and augment human judgment in manager selection and ongoing oversight.
Alignment of Interests
Alignment of interests is how fund economics and controls ensure GP decisions benefit LP outcomes over the life of a strategy.
Allocator intelligence
Allocator intelligence is research and structured data on capital allocators (LPs, family offices, endowments, pensions, foundations) that helps teams identify fit, understand mandates, and prioritize outreach using evidence like strategy language, historical allocations, and network context.
Alpha
Alpha is the portion of returns attributable to manager skill beyond what would be expected from market exposure.
Anchor Investor
An anchor investor is an early LP that commits a meaningful amount to a fund—often before or at first close—helping de-risk fundraising and attract additional investors.
Angel Investor
An angel investor is an individual who invests personal capital into early-stage startups, typically at pre-seed or seed.
Angel Syndicate
An angel syndicate is a coordinated group of angels investing together, typically organized by a syndicate lead.
Asset Allocation
Asset allocation is the distribution of capital across asset classes to balance return goals, risk, liquidity, and time horizon.
Assets Under Management (AUM)
Assets under management (AUM) is the total market value of assets managed by an investor, advisor, or fund manager.
Audit
An audit is an independent examination of a fund or entity’s financial statements and supporting controls.
Audit Trail
An audit trail is a recorded history of changes to a record or field—what changed, when, why, and by what source or process.
Benchmark
A benchmark is a reference index, peer set, or target used to evaluate investment performance.
Beneficial Owner Mapping
Beneficial owner mapping is identifying and linking the individual(s) who ultimately own, control, or economically benefit from an entity across layered structures.
Beneficial Ownership
Beneficial ownership identifies the individual(s) who ultimately own, control, or economically benefit from an entity.
Beneficial Ownership Tracing
Identifying ultimate individual(s) who own, control, or economically benefit from an entity by mapping through layered structures.
Beta
Beta measures how sensitive an investment’s returns are to broader market movements.
Bounce Rate
Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who leave a webpage without taking another action or viewing a second page.
Cap Table (Capitalization Table)
A cap table is a record of a company’s ownership, including shareholders, option pools, and security classes.
Capacity
Capacity is the amount of capital a strategy can deploy without degrading returns or weakening underwriting standards.
Capital Account Statement
A capital account statement tracks an LP’s contributions, distributions, fees, and ending balance in a fund.
Capital Advisory
Capital advisory is professional support for raising capital, structuring fundraising strategy, and improving investor readiness across materials, positioning, and process.
Capital Call
A capital call is a request by a fund for LPs to contribute a portion of their committed capital.
Capital Call Notice
A capital call notice is the formal funding instruction to LPs specifying amount, due date, purpose, and wiring details.
Capital Commitment
A capital commitment is the total amount an LP agrees to provide to a fund over its life, subject to drawdowns.
Capital Stack
The capital stack is the hierarchy of financing in a deal or company, ordered by seniority and claim on cash flows.
Carried Interest (Carry)
Carried interest is performance-based compensation paid to the GP from profits after returning capital and meeting agreed return thresholds.
Catch-Up
Catch-up is a waterfall mechanism that allocates a higher share of profits to the GP after the preferred return is met, until the agreed carry split is reached.
Change Detection
Change detection is the process of identifying meaningful updates to records over time, such as role changes, mandate shifts, AUM updates, or new contact channels.
Change Log
A change log is a human-readable list of meaningful updates to a record over time (roles, AUM shifts, contacts, mandate changes).
Chief Investment Officer (CIO)
A Chief Investment Officer (CIO) is the senior leader responsible for investment strategy, portfolio oversight, and manager selection for an allocator or institution.
Chief of Staff (Family Office)
A family office chief of staff is an operational leader who coordinates priorities, workflows, and communications across the office and the principal’s agenda.
Clawback
A clawback is a provision requiring the GP to return excess carry if full-fund results do not support carry already distributed.
Close Acceleration Tactics
Strategies for accelerating LP commitment decisions: creating urgency through close deadlines, leveraging anchor commitments, offering allocation certainty for early commits, coordinating IC timing.
Closed-End Fund
A closed-end fund is a fund with a fixed fundraising period and term, where capital is committed up front and called over time, with limited liquidity until distributions.
Co-Investment
Co-investment is an LP’s direct participation in a specific deal alongside a GP’s fund, often on reduced fees and carry.
Co-Investment Platform
A systematic process—or technology infrastructure—enabling LPs to participate in direct investments alongside a GP's fund, typically on preferential fee terms and with streamlined deal flow access.
Commitment Pacing
Commitment pacing is the planned rate of new fund commitments over time to maintain target allocation and liquidity stability.
Competitive Intelligence on Allocators
Gathering and analyzing information about what other GPs an allocator has funded, how those relationships evolved, and what patterns exist in manager selection.
Compliance
Compliance is the system of policies, controls, and monitoring used to meet legal, regulatory, and internal requirements.
Concentration Risk
Concentration risk is the risk that portfolio outcomes are overly dependent on a single asset, manager, sector, geography, or factor.
Concierge Services
Lifestyle management services provided by family offices—travel planning, property management, household staff, personal security, events, art/collections, and exclusive access.
Conflict of Interest
A conflict of interest occurs when incentives, relationships, or roles could compromise objective decision-making.
Contact Verification
Contact verification is confirming that a contact channel (email/phone) is accurate, active, and correctly associated with a specific person.
Contact Verification Workflow
Systematic process for confirming that contact information (email, phone, LinkedIn) is accurate, active, and correctly associated with the intended person.
Continuation Vehicle
A continuation vehicle is a new investment vehicle created to hold one or more assets from an existing fund, typically extending ownership and providing liquidity options to current LPs.
Correction Request
A correction request is a formal request to update inaccurate or outdated information in a profile or record.
Correlation
Correlation measures how two return streams move relative to each other over time.
Covenant Package
A covenant package is the set of contractual protections and restrictions in a debt agreement that govern borrower behavior and lender remedies.
Covenant-Lite
Covenant-lite loans have fewer or weaker maintenance covenants, reducing early warning and lender control.
Coverage
Coverage is the scope of entities and attributes included in a dataset within a defined universe.
Coverage Rate
Coverage rate is the percentage of a defined universe that is included and sufficiently populated in a dataset.
Coverage Universe
A coverage universe is the defined set of entities you intend to cover—the denominator for coverage measurement.
Credit Spread
A credit spread is the yield difference between a credit instrument and a comparable risk-free benchmark, reflecting compensation for risk.
Cross-Source Validation
Confirming a fact by checking it against disparate, independent information sources to distinguish between fact and artifact.
Custody
Custody refers to the safeguarding of assets through a qualified custodian and controlled processes for holding and moving assets.
Data Accuracy
Data accuracy is the degree to which stored information matches reality at the time it is asserted.
Data Completeness
Data completeness is the extent to which required fields for a record are populated with usable values.
Data Enrichment
Data enrichment is adding missing fields or context to a record using additional sources and verification workflows.
Data Lineage
Data lineage is the traceable history of where data came from, how it was transformed, and how it reached its current form.
Data Normalization
Data normalization is standardizing values (names, roles, regions, sectors) into consistent formats for search, filtering, and analytics.
Data Provenance Tracking
Maintaining complete record of data origin, collection method, transformations applied, and verification history.
Data Quality Assurance
Data quality assurance is the ongoing process of detecting errors, validating critical fields, and improving accuracy over time.
Data Refresh Cadence
Data refresh cadence is how often records and fields are re-checked and updated to reflect new information.
Data Room
A data room is a centralized repository where documents are shared for diligence, underwriting, or transaction execution.
DDQ
A DDQ (Due Diligence Questionnaire) is a structured set of questions used to evaluate a manager’s strategy, operations, controls, and risks.
DDQ Response Strategy
Best practices for completing due diligence questionnaires: assigning ownership, maintaining response database, balancing transparency with competitive sensitivity, providing evidence.
Deal Attribution
Deal attribution is the process of explaining which investments, decisions, and drivers contributed to performance outcomes.
Deal Flow
Deal flow is the volume and quality of investment opportunities sourced and evaluated over a given period.
Deal Sourcing
Deal sourcing is the process of originating and accessing investment opportunities through networks, outreach, and proprietary channels.
Decision Authority
Decision authority is who has the final power to approve, reject, or allocate capital within an organization.
Decision Catalyst Identification
Recognizing what specific event, evidence, or trigger will move an LP from evaluation to commitment.
Decision Chain
A decision chain is the sequence of people and steps through which an investment decision moves from initial screening to final approval.
Decision Chain Mapping
Documenting the sequence of people and approval steps through which an investment decision flows from screening to final commitment.
Deduplication
Deduplication is the process of identifying and merging duplicate records that refer to the same entity or person.
Default Risk
Default risk is the probability that a borrower fails to meet its debt obligations under agreed terms.
Demo Day
Demo Day is an event where startups present to investors, typically hosted by accelerators or incubators.
Deployment Pace
Deployment pace is the rate at which committed or available capital is invested over time.
Direct Investment
Direct investment is when an allocator invests directly into a company or asset rather than through a fund.
Distribution Notice
A distribution notice is the formal statement describing an upcoming or completed distribution and its key details.
Distributions
Distributions are cash or in-kind proceeds returned from a fund to LPs.
Diversification
Diversification is spreading exposure across different assets, managers, sectors, or strategies to reduce dependence on any single outcome.
DPI (Distributed to Paid-In)
DPI (Distributed to Paid-In) measures how much cash a fund has returned relative to the capital investors have contributed.
Drawdown
A drawdown is the decline from a portfolio’s peak value to a subsequent low point over a given period.
Drawdown Facility
A credit facility used to bridge timing between investments and LP funding—allowing a fund to draw capital from a lender before issuing (or completing) LP capital calls.
Dry Powder
Dry powder is the amount of capital a GP (or allocator) still has available to deploy—typically uninvested fund capacity or portfolio budget room—after accounting for constraints like pacing, reserves, and mandate limits.
DSCR (Debt Service Coverage Ratio)
DSCR measures cashflow coverage of debt payments, typically Net Operating Income ÷ Debt Service.
Due Diligence
Due diligence is the structured process of evaluating an investment, manager, or counterparty to validate claims, risks, and fit.
Duration
Duration measures sensitivity of a bond or rate-exposed asset’s value to changes in interest rates, often expressed in years.
Emerging Fund Manager
An emerging fund manager is a newer or smaller manager still building institutional scale, even if the team has prior attributable experience.
Emerging Manager
An emerging manager is a newer or smaller investment manager—often raising a first or early fund—where the platform is still scaling, even if the team has prior attributable experience.
Endowment
An endowment is a pool of assets invested to support a long-term mission, typically for universities, foundations, or non-profits.
Entity Resolution
Entity resolution is identifying and linking records that refer to the same real-world entity (person, firm, or asset) across sources.
ERISA Considerations
ERISA considerations are legal and fiduciary requirements that apply when U.S. retirement plan assets invest in a fund or vehicle.
ESG Integration Score
The degree to which environmental, social, and governance factors are systematically incorporated into a GP's investment process—ranging from basic exclusions to full integration across sourcing, diligence, value creation, and exit.
Evergreen Fund
An evergreen fund is an open-ended or continuously operating fund that can accept new capital over time and may offer periodic liquidity, subject to terms.
Evidence Decay
The rate at which information becomes stale or unreliable over time, varying by field type and entity characteristics.
Evidence Weighting
Evidence weighting is the method of ranking and combining evidence sources to determine the most trustworthy value for a field.
Exit Strategy
An exit strategy is the planned pathway for realizing value and returning capital from an investment.
Factor Exposure
Factor exposure is the degree to which returns are driven by systematic risk factors such as value, growth, momentum, quality, size, or rates.
Family Charter
A family charter is a guiding document that outlines a family’s shared values, purpose, and principles for wealth stewardship and decision-making.
Family Constitution
A family constitution is a structured governance framework defining roles, decision rights, and processes for family wealth and long-term management.
Family Council
A family council is a group of family members that coordinates governance, communication, and long-term priorities related to wealth and family matters.
Family Governance
Family governance is the structure and process a family uses to make decisions, manage roles, and preserve continuity across generations.
Family Office
A family office is a private organization that manages the wealth, investments, and long-term financial affairs of one family (SFO) or multiple families (MFO).
Family Office Asset Allocation
Family office asset allocation is how a family office distributes capital across asset classes to match the family’s goals, liquidity needs, and risk tolerance.
Family Office AUM
Family office AUM is the total assets managed by the family office on behalf of the family (or families), typically across public, private, and real assets.
Family Office CFO
A family office CFO oversees financial operations, reporting, tax coordination, cash management, and often governance-related financial controls.
Family Office Check Size Range
The typical minimum and maximum investment amounts a family office commits to a single fund or direct deal.
Family Office Co-Investment Appetite
A family office's willingness and capacity to invest directly in specific deals alongside a GP's fund, typically with reduced or zero fees and carry.
Family Office Contacts
Family office contacts are the people and communication channels associated with a family office, including roles, emails, phones, and routing context.
Family Office Controller
A family office controller manages accounting operations, financial reporting processes, and internal controls for the office’s entities and activities.
Family Office Database
A family office database is a structured dataset of family offices with profiles, mandate signals, and role-mapped contacts used for allocator discovery, outreach, and diligence.
Family Office Decision Velocity
The speed at which family offices move from introduction to commitment, typically faster than institutions (weeks to months vs 6-18 months) due to fewer approval layers.
Family Office Decision-Maker
A family office decision-maker is the person (or group) with authority to approve allocations or investments for the family office.
Family Office Directory
A family office directory is a navigable index of family offices, typically focused on discovery and basic profiles.
Family Office Executive Director
A family office executive director is a senior operator responsible for running the office’s day-to-day management and coordinating across functions.
Family Office Gatekeeper
A family office gatekeeper is a person who controls access to decision-makers and filters inbound opportunities.
Family Office General Counsel
A family office general counsel oversees legal risk, contracts, governance, and regulatory considerations for the family and office entities.
Family Office Geographic Focus
Family office geographic focus is the set of regions or countries where a family office prefers to invest or allocate.
Family Office Investment Committee
A family office investment committee is a group that reviews and approves investment decisions, typically for larger allocations or policy-level choices.
Family Office Investment Preferences
Family office investment preferences are the stated or observed characteristics a family office favors, such as asset class, sector, stage, geography, and structure.
Family Office Investment Team
A family office investment team is the set of professionals responsible for sourcing, diligence, execution, and monitoring of investments.
Family Office Investor Database
A family office investor database is a curated dataset focused on family offices as allocators, including mandate signals and decision-maker mapping for fundraising and IR workflows.
Family Office Leads
Family office leads are prospective family office targets prioritized for outreach based on fit, readiness, and reachable decision pathways.
Family Office Liquidity Preference
Family office liquidity preference describes how strongly a family office prioritizes liquidity, cash access, and flexibility in its portfolio.
Family Office List
A family office list is a basic collection of family office names and identifiers, often used for initial discovery.
Family Office Mandate
A family office mandate is the set of investment constraints and preferences that define what the office will consider and how it allocates capital.
Family Office Mandate Fit
Mandate fit is the degree to which an opportunity matches an allocator’s mandate constraints and preferences.
Family Office Minimum AUM Threshold
The minimum asset level required to economically justify a single family office, typically $50M-$250M, though $100M+ is common for full-service operations.
Family Office Net Worth
Family office net worth is the estimated total wealth of the underlying family, including investable and non-investable assets.
Family Office Operating Model
The structural approach a family office uses to deliver services—from fully embedded (in-house staff) to virtual (outsourced coordination), and centralized to distributed.
Family Office Prospecting
Family office prospecting is the process of identifying, qualifying, and engaging family offices as potential allocators or deal partners.
Family Office Sector Focus
Family office sector focus is the set of industries a family office prefers to invest in or avoid.
Family Office Services Scope
The range of services a family office provides beyond investments—tax, estate, governance, administration, philanthropy, and lifestyle management.
Family Office Strategic vs Financial Investing
Whether a family office invests purely for financial returns or also seeks strategic benefits like industry knowledge, network access, competitive intelligence, or family business synergies.
Family Trust
A family trust is a legal structure that holds assets for beneficiaries under defined rules, often used for estate planning, governance, and asset protection.
Family Values Alignment
The extent to which family values, legacy goals, ethical standards, and reputational concerns filter investment decisions beyond pure financial returns.
Fee Drag
Fee drag is the reduction in investor returns caused by management fees, fund expenses, and other costs over time.
Fee Offset
A fee offset is a mechanism that credits certain fees earned by the GP (e.g., transaction or monitoring fees) back to the fund or LPs, reducing overall fee burden.
Fee Waiver
A fee waiver is when a GP reduces or waives management fees, often via side letter economics.
Field Freshness
Field freshness measures how recently a specific field (role, email, mandate) was verified or updated—not just the overall profile.
Final Close
Final close is the last closing of a fund’s fundraising, after which the fund typically stops accepting new LP commitments.
First Close
First close is the initial closing of a fund when it begins officially operating and accepting initial LP commitments.
First-Time Fund Manager
A first-time fund manager is a GP raising and operating their first institutional fund as a standalone platform, even if they have prior investing experience.
Follow-On Investment
A follow-on investment is additional capital invested into an existing portfolio company after the initial investment.
Follow-on Reserves
Follow-on reserves are capital set aside to invest in later rounds of existing portfolio companies, especially top performers.
Follow-Up Cadence Optimization
Strategic spacing and sequencing of touchpoints with LPs after initial meetings to maintain engagement without over-pursuing.
Form ADV
Form ADV is the primary disclosure filing for U.S. investment advisers, detailing business practices, fees, conflicts, and compliance information.
Foundation
A foundation is a nonprofit organization that manages assets to fund charitable purposes, often through grants, programs, or mission-aligned investing.
Fund Administrator
A fund administrator is a third-party service provider that handles fund accounting, NAV calculations, investor statements, and operational reporting.
Fund Manager
A fund manager is the person or firm responsible for running an investment fund, including sourcing, underwriting, portfolio management, and reporting to investors.
Fund of Funds (FoF)
A fund of funds (FoF) is an investment vehicle that allocates capital into multiple underlying funds rather than investing directly into companies or assets.
Fund Structure
Fund structure is the legal, economic, and operational design of a fund, including its vehicle type, governance terms, liquidity, and fee/carry mechanics.
Fundraising Period
The fundraising period is the window during which a fund accepts LP commitments before reaching final close.
Fundraising Status
Fundraising status is the current state of a fund’s raise (e.g., pre-marketing, active fundraising, first close achieved, final close).
Fundraising Velocity Metrics
Key performance indicators tracking speed of capital raising: weeks to first meeting, conversion rates, diligence-to-commitment timeline, and capital raised per month.
Gatekeeper Identification
Determining who controls access to decision-makers, including executive assistants, chiefs of staff, investor relations personnel, or senior advisors.
Gates
Gates are limits on how much capital investors can redeem from a fund within a given period.
General Partner (GP)
A general partner (GP) is the entity responsible for managing a fund, making investment decisions, and bearing fiduciary and operational responsibility.
Geographic Coverage
Geographic coverage is the extent to which a dataset includes entities within specific regions or countries, with usable fields.
GP Commitment
GP commitment is the amount of capital the GP and related principals invest into their own fund.
GP Economics
GP economics are the financial incentives and compensation mechanics for the GP across fees, carried interest, and any additional revenue streams.
GP Track Record Attribution
GP track record attribution is the evidence-based linkage between a GP’s claimed performance and the specific decisions, deals, and responsibilities that produced it.
GP-Led Secondary
A GP-led secondary is a transaction initiated by the GP to provide liquidity and restructure ownership of one or more assets, often through a continuation vehicle.
Hard Cap
A hard cap is the maximum fund size a manager is permitted to raise, as defined in fund documents.
Holding Company
A holding company is an entity created to own shares or interests in other companies, assets, or subsidiaries.
Household Mapping
Household mapping is linking related individuals and entities into a single economic unit (a “household”) to understand true networks and control.
Hurdle Rate
A hurdle rate is the minimum return threshold a fund must achieve before the GP earns carried interest.
Hybrid Fund Structure
A fund combining traditional closed-end capital commitments with open-end or semi-liquid features—enabling ongoing fundraising, periodic redemptions, or extended deployment periods beyond standard fund lifecycles.
IC Memo (Investment Committee Memo)
An IC memo is a written investment case presented to an investment committee summarizing thesis, risks, terms, and recommendation.
Identity Confidence
Identity confidence is how certain you are that a record truly refers to a specific real-world person or entity.
Identity Disambiguation
Distinguishing between entities or people with similar names by confirming unique identifiers and relationship patterns.
Independent Sponsor
An independent sponsor is an individual or small team that sources and leads deals without managing a committed fund, raising capital deal-by-deal from investors.
Information Ratio
Information Ratio measures active return per unit of active risk, commonly (Portfolio − Benchmark) ÷ Tracking Error.
Institutional Investor Database
An institutional investor database is a structured dataset of institutional allocators with profiles, mandate signals, decision pathways, and verified contacts used for targeting and diligence.
Institutional Investors
Institutional investors are organizations that invest capital at scale on behalf of beneficiaries, clients, or stakeholders (e.g., pensions, endowments, foundations, insurers).
Intent Signal Detection
Identifying observable indicators that an allocator is actively seeking new investments or managers.
Intergenerational Wealth Transfer
Intergenerational wealth transfer is the process of transitioning assets, control, and stewardship from one generation to the next.
Interval Fund
A perpetual fund offering limited periodic liquidity through quarterly or semi-annual redemption windows capped at 5-25% of NAV—providing more liquidity than closed-end funds but less than daily-traded open-end vehicles.
Introduction Path
An introduction path is the most credible route to reach a decision-maker through trusted intermediaries and relationship links.
Investment Bank
An investment bank is a financial institution that advises on capital raising, M&A, and structured financing, often acting as an intermediary between issuers and investors.
Investment Committee (IC)
An investment committee is a group responsible for reviewing and approving investment decisions within an organization.
Investment Mandate
An investment mandate is the formal or informal set of constraints defining what an allocator or fund is permitted to invest in.
Investment Period
The investment period is the phase of a fund’s life when the GP is permitted to make new investments and call capital for them.
Investment Policy Statement (IPS)
An investment policy statement (IPS) is a governing document that defines an allocator’s objectives, constraints, target allocations, and risk guidelines.
Investment Readiness
Investment readiness is whether an allocator is currently in a position to review and act on opportunities based on timing, liquidity, and internal cycles.
Investment Team Turnover
Investment team turnover is the rate at which key investment professionals leave, join, or change roles within a firm or allocator team.
Investment Thesis
An investment thesis is the specific rationale for why an investment or strategy should generate returns, including the mechanism and the conditions required.
Investor Intelligence
Investor intelligence is actionable, decision-ready information about investors, including mandate signals, decision chains, preferences, timing, and verified contacts.
Investor Qualification
Investor qualification is verifying whether an investor meets legal and policy requirements to invest in a specific offering.
Investor Qualification Criteria
Initial filters determining whether an LP is worth pursuing: mandate fit, ticket size alignment, decision timeline compatibility, access pathways, and strategic value.
Investor Target List
An investor target list is a prioritized set of allocators selected for outreach based on mandate fit, decision pathways, and likelihood of engagement.
IRR (Internal Rate of Return)
IRR is the annualized rate of return that equates the present value of cash flows (calls and distributions) to zero.
J-Curve
The J-curve is the typical pattern in private funds where early returns are negative due to fees and expenses before investments mature and generate gains.
Key Person Clause
A key person clause is a fund term that restricts new investments if specified key individuals are no longer actively involved.
Key Person Risk
Key person risk is the risk that fund performance and process depend heavily on a small number of individuals.
KYC/AML
KYC/AML refers to “Know Your Customer” and “Anti-Money Laundering” processes used to verify investor identity and prevent illicit finance.
Last Verified
Last verified is the timestamp indicating when a specific data field (e.g., role, email, mandate) was most recently confirmed as accurate.
Lead Investor
A lead investor is the investor who anchors a financing round, often setting terms and coordinating the syndicate.
Leverage
Leverage is the use of borrowed capital, derivatives, or structural financing to increase exposure beyond the invested equity.
Limited Partner (LP)
A limited partner (LP) is an investor in a fund who provides capital but does not manage day-to-day investment decisions.
Limited Partnership Agreement (LPA)
An LPA is the primary legal contract governing a private fund’s structure, economics, and rules between the GP and LPs.
Liquidation Preference
Liquidation preference is a term that determines how proceeds are distributed to investors before common shareholders in a liquidity event.
Liquidity
Liquidity is the ability to convert an asset into cash quickly with limited price impact.
Liquidity Budget
A liquidity budget is a plan that estimates future cash needs and sets minimum liquid resources to meet obligations under normal and stress scenarios.
Liquidity Mismatch
Liquidity mismatch occurs when the liquidity terms of a portfolio’s assets don’t align with the timing of its cash obligations.
Liquidity Sleeve
A liquidity sleeve is a dedicated portion of a portfolio held in liquid assets to meet near-term cash needs and manage volatility.
Lockup
A lockup is a period during which an investor cannot redeem or withdraw capital from an investment vehicle.
Look-Through Exposure
Look-through exposure is measuring a portfolio’s true underlying exposures by analyzing what’s inside funds, vehicles, and layered holdings.
LP Advisory Committee (LPAC)
An LP advisory committee (LPAC) is a group of LP representatives that advises the GP and provides oversight on conflicts and certain approvals.
LP Decision Cycle
An LP decision cycle is the end-to-end process and timeline an allocator follows to approve a fund commitment or investment.
LP Event Strategy
Planning and executing investor touchpoints beyond formal meetings: annual general meetings, site visits, LP dinners, conference co-attendance, informal networking.
LP Meeting Preparation Playbook
Systematic approach to preparing for investor meetings: researching LP background, identifying common ground, anticipating questions, preparing examples, coordinating team messaging.
LP Pipeline Stages
The progressive qualification framework LPs move through: Discovery, Qualification, Engagement, Diligence, Commitment, and Deployment.
LP Target List Prioritization
Systematic ranking of potential investors based on mandate fit, commitment likelihood, ticket size potential, decision velocity, relationship strength, and strategic value.
LP Ticket Size Range
LP ticket size range is the typical minimum and maximum amount an allocator commits to a single fund, strategy, or investment.
LP-Led Secondary
An LP-led secondary is when an LP sells its fund interest to a secondary buyer for liquidity.
LP–GP Intelligence
LP–GP intelligence is decision-ready information that maps relationships, fundraising activity, allocations, and engagement signals between limited partners (LPs) and general partners (GPs).
Management Fee
A management fee is the ongoing fee paid to the GP/manager to operate the fund, typically charged as a percentage of committed or invested capital.
Management Fee Basis
Management fee basis is the reference amount used to calculate management fees (e.g., committed capital, invested capital, or NAV).
Manager Selection
Manager selection is the process an allocator uses to identify, evaluate, and choose external investment managers for allocation.
Mandate Drift
Mandate drift is when an allocator’s actual behavior shifts away from its stated or historically observed mandate.
Mandate Drift Detection
Recognizing when an allocator's actual investment behavior shifts away from stated or historical mandates.
Mandate Fit Score
A mandate fit score is a structured assessment of how well an opportunity matches an allocator’s constraints and preferences.
Mandate Signals
Mandate signals are observable indicators that suggest what an allocator is likely to invest in (asset class, stage, sector, geography, structure).
Materials Sequencing Strategy
Optimal order and timing for sharing fundraising materials: initial deck (first meeting), PPM (serious interest), DDQ (active diligence), track record (due diligence), side letters (commitment).
Maximum Drawdown
Maximum drawdown is the largest peak-to-trough decline in value over a period.
MOIC (Multiple on Invested Capital)
MOIC is a return multiple calculated as total value (realized + unrealized) divided by invested capital.
Most Favored Nation (MFN)
An MFN clause allows an LP to elect into more favorable terms granted to other LPs, typically through side letters, subject to conditions.
Multi-Family Office (MFO)
A multi-family office (MFO) is an organization that provides investment management and wealth services for multiple families.
Multi-Family Office Database
A multi-family office database is a dataset of MFOs with profiles, mandates, and role-mapped contacts used for allocator targeting and diligence.
Net IRR vs Gross IRR
Gross IRR is return before fees and expenses; net IRR is return after all fees, carry, and fund-level costs.
Net vs Gross Returns
Gross returns are performance before fees/expenses; net returns are performance after all fees, carry, and costs borne by LPs.
Network Mapping
Visualizing and analyzing relationship structures between people, entities, investments, and institutions to identify influence patterns and introduction pathways.
Next-Gen Influence
The degree to which younger family members (children/grandchildren of wealth creator) actively shape or will shape investment strategy, governance, and decision-making.
Next-Generation (Next-Gen)
Next-gen refers to the younger generation of a wealth family who may influence or assume control of governance and investment decisions over time.
Objection Handling Framework
Systematic approach to addressing common LP concerns: team track record, fund size, fee structure, timing mismatches, portfolio construction fit.
OID (Original Issue Discount)
OID is when a loan is issued at a discount to par, increasing effective yield as the discount accretes.
Operating Partner
An operating partner is an experienced operator who supports a fund or portfolio companies on execution, strategy, and value creation.
Operational Due Diligence (ODD)
Operational due diligence (ODD) is the assessment of a manager’s operational infrastructure, controls, compliance, and risk management.
OSINT (Open Source Intelligence)
OSINT (Open-Source Intelligence) is the process of collecting and analyzing publicly available information to generate actionable insights about people, firms, funds, and markets.
Outreach Sequencing
Outreach sequencing is the structured plan for how and when you contact an allocator across steps, channels, and follow-ups.
Overcommitment
Overcommitment is committing to more illiquid fund capital than currently available cash, assuming future distributions and staggered capital calls will cover obligations.
Oversubscription
Oversubscription occurs when LP demand exceeds a fund’s target size or hard cap, leading to allocation cuts or limited access.
Ownership Network
Ownership Network
Ownership Structure
Ownership structure describes how an entity is owned and controlled across individuals, trusts, holding companies, and other vehicles.
Patient Capital
Patient capital is long-duration investment capital that can hold through extended cycles and tolerate slower liquidity, enabling allocators to underwrite longer time horizons without being forced to sell or rebalance prematurely.
Pension Fund
A pension fund is an institutional investor that manages assets to pay retirement benefits to plan participants.
PIK (Payment-in-Kind)
PIK interest is paid by adding to principal instead of cash, compounding exposure over time.
Pipeline Conversion Metrics
Percentage of LPs advancing from one fundraising stage to the next, used for bottleneck identification and pipeline forecasting.
Placement Agent
A placement agent is an intermediary that helps a fund manager raise capital by introducing the fund to potential LPs and supporting the fundraising process.
PME (Public Market Equivalent)
PME compares private fund results to a public market benchmark using the fund’s actual cashflows.
Portfolio Company
A portfolio company is a company that a fund or investor has invested in and actively tracks as part of its portfolio.
Portfolio Concentration Limits
Portfolio concentration limits are rules that cap exposure to a single investment, sector, manager, geography, or risk factor.
Portfolio Construction
Portfolio construction is the deliberate design of a portfolio’s exposures, position sizes, pacing, and diversification to meet return and risk objectives.
Portfolio Look-Through
Portfolio look-through is measuring true underlying exposures by analyzing what’s inside funds, vehicles, and layered holdings.
Portfolio Role
Portfolio role is the intended function an investment plays in a portfolio (e.g., growth engine, income, diversifier, inflation hedge).
Pre-Seed
Pre-seed is an early startup funding stage focused on validating an idea, building an initial product, and proving early demand.
Preferred Return
Preferred return is the minimum return LPs receive before the GP earns carried interest, often expressed as an annual hurdle.
Priced Round
A priced round is a financing round where the company’s valuation is explicitly set and equity is issued at a defined price per share.
Principal
A principal is the underlying wealth owner or primary decision authority in a family office or private investment structure.
Principal Accessibility
The degree to which the principal (wealth owner) is directly reachable for investment discussions versus requiring intermediaries, gatekeepers, or formal processes.
Private Bank Wealth Management
Private bank wealth management refers to investment and advisory services provided by banks to high-net-worth individuals and families.
Private Credit
Private credit is non-bank lending provided by private funds or investors, typically to companies, sponsors, or asset-backed borrowers.
Private Equity
Private equity is investing in privately held companies (or taking public companies private) to drive value creation and realize returns through exits.
Private Placement Memorandum (PPM)
A PPM is a disclosure document that describes an investment offering, including strategy, risks, terms, and legal structure.
Pro-Rata Rights
Pro-rata rights are the contractual rights for an investor to maintain their ownership percentage by participating in future financing rounds.
Qualified Purchaser
A qualified purchaser is a U.S. legal category of investor (generally very high net worth) that is eligible for certain private fund offerings under the Investment Company Act.
Re-Up
A re-up is when an existing LP commits to a manager’s next fund (a subsequent vintage).
Realized vs Unrealized Returns
Realized returns come from actual cash distributions; unrealized returns are based on the current valuation of remaining holdings.
Rebalancing
Rebalancing is adjusting portfolio holdings to bring exposures back in line with target allocations or risk limits.
Recallable Distributions
Recallable distributions are amounts returned to LPs that can later be called back under specified LPA conditions.
Record Completeness
Record completeness measures how many required fields in a profile are populated with usable values.
Record Freshness
Record freshness measures how recently a record’s critical fields were verified or updated to reflect current reality.
Recycling (Reinvestment of Distributions)
Recycling is when a fund reinvests certain distributions back into new or follow-on investments instead of returning them permanently to LPs.
Recycling Limit
A recycling limit caps how much a GP can reinvest proceeds by re-calling or reusing distributions within a fund.
Redemption
Redemption is an investor’s request to withdraw capital from a fund or vehicle according to its liquidity terms.
Redemption Queue
A redemption queue is a backlog of redemption requests that could not be fully processed and are carried forward to future redemption windows.
Reference Call Framework
Structured approach to back-channel reference checks: identifying references, preparing validation questions, reading between the lines, synthesizing findings.
Reference Checks
Reference checks are structured conversations with people who have worked with or observed a manager, team, or company to validate claims and surface risks.
Registered Investment Advisor (RIA)
A registered investment advisor (RIA) is a regulated firm that provides investment advisory services and is registered with the SEC and/or state regulators.
Regulation D (Reg D)
Regulation D is a U.S. framework enabling certain securities offerings to qualify as private placements without full SEC registration.
Relationship Graph
A relationship graph maps connections between people, entities, vehicles, and deals to show influence, control, and routing pathways.
Reporting Package
A reporting package is the set of periodic reports a manager provides to LPs, typically including performance, NAV, portfolio updates, and financial statements.
Reputation Risk Sensitivity
How strongly family offices prioritize privacy, brand protection, and avoiding public controversy in investment decisions.
Risk Budget
A risk budget is an allocator’s framework for allocating total portfolio risk across strategies, managers, and exposures.
Risk Limits
Risk limits are predefined thresholds that restrict exposures or risk metrics to keep a portfolio within acceptable bounds.
Role Validation
Role validation is confirming that a person’s title and function match their real responsibilities and decision authority.
Role Validation Methodology
Confirming that a person's stated title matches their actual responsibilities and decision authority through multiple evidence sources.
Rule 506(b) vs 506(c)
506(b) limits general solicitation; 506(c) allows general solicitation but requires verified accredited investor status.
RVPI (Residual Value to Paid-In)
RVPI measures the remaining unrealized value of a fund relative to paid-in capital (what’s still “left” vs what investors contributed).
SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity)
A SAFE is a financing instrument that allows investors to fund a startup now in exchange for equity in a future priced round, typically with a valuation cap and/or discount.
Scenario Analysis
Scenario analysis is testing how a portfolio or investment might perform under specific market or business conditions (e.g., recession, rate spike, credit stress).
Secondaries
Secondaries are transactions where investors buy or sell existing interests in private funds or portfolios, rather than committing to new primary funds.
Secondary Buyer
A secondary buyer is an investor that purchases existing interests in funds, portfolios, or single assets from current holders to provide liquidity.
Sector Coverage
Sector coverage is how well a dataset captures entities and signals across specific industries, including usable mandate and activity fields.
Seed Round
A seed round is an early-stage financing used to build product, hire core team, and validate initial market traction.
Senior Secured Debt
Senior secured debt is a loan that has priority in repayment and is backed by collateral, typically sitting at the top of the capital stack.
Series A
Series A is a priced venture round typically used to scale a startup that has early product-market fit signals.
Sharpe Ratio
The Sharpe ratio measures risk-adjusted return by dividing excess return over a risk-free rate by return volatility.
Side Letter
A side letter is a separate agreement between a GP and an LP that grants specific terms, rights, or reporting beyond the standard LPA.
Side Pocket
A side pocket is a separate account within a fund used to hold illiquid or hard-to-value assets, often with restricted liquidity.
Signal Confidence Scoring
Probabilistic assessment of how likely a data point is to be accurate, based on source quality, evidence strength, recency, and cross-validation.
Single Family Office (SFO)
A single family office (SFO) is a private organization that manages the wealth of one ultra-high-net-worth family.
Single Family Office Database
A single family office database is a dataset of SFO profiles with mandate signals, verified contacts, and decision-chain context used for allocator targeting.
SOFR (Secured Overnight Financing Rate)
SOFR is a common floating reference rate used as the base for U.S. loan pricing.
Soft Cap
A soft cap is a fundraising target a fund aims to reach (often for viability), but it is not a strict maximum limit.
Sortino Ratio
Sortino Ratio measures risk-adjusted return using downside volatility rather than total volatility.
Source Attribution
Source attribution identifies the specific source(s) that support a data point and the evidence type behind it.
Source Confidence
Source confidence is a score or label indicating how trustworthy a specific data point is based on the quality and strength of its evidence.
Source Triangulation
Validating a data point by confirming it across three or more independent sources with different collection methods.
Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF)
A sovereign wealth fund (SWF) is a state-owned investment fund that manages national wealth, often derived from commodities or reserves.
Spending Policy
A spending policy is a rule for how much an endowment/foundation distributes each year to fund operations or beneficiaries.
Spread / Margin
Spread (margin) is the incremental interest rate charged above a reference rate (e.g., SOFR) to compensate for credit risk and structure.
SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle)
An SPV is a separate legal entity created for a specific investment, transaction, or purpose, often to pool capital or isolate risk.
Stapled Secondary
A stapled secondary pairs an LP interest sale with a new commitment to the GP’s current or future fund(s).
Startup Accelerator
A startup accelerator is a program that supports early-stage startups with mentorship, network access, and often seed funding over a fixed cohort period.
Startup Incubator
A startup incubator supports startups earlier than accelerators, often providing workspace, resources, and hands-on help over a longer, less structured timeline.
Step-Down
A step-down is a scheduled reduction in management fees and/or a change in fee basis, typically after the investment period.
Stress Testing
Stress testing is evaluating how a portfolio or strategy behaves under severe adverse conditions using extreme but plausible shocks.
Style Drift
Style drift is when a manager’s actual investments deviate materially from their stated strategy, mandate, or risk profile over time.
Subscription Agreement
A subscription agreement is the document an investor signs to commit to a fund, certify eligibility, and agree to fund terms.
Subscription Line (Capital Call Facility)
A subscription line is a credit facility a fund uses to finance investments before calling capital from LPs.
Syndicate Lead
A syndicate lead is the investor who organizes a group of investors into a round, often negotiating terms and setting the pace.
Temporal Pattern Analysis
Analyzing how entities, mandates, or behaviors evolve over time to identify trends, cycles, and inflection points.
Tender Offer
A tender offer is a structured process where a buyer offers to purchase LP interests at stated terms during a defined window.
Term (Fund Life)
Term is the length of time a fund is expected to operate before liquidation, often 10 years plus extension options.
Term Sheet
A term sheet is a non-binding document outlining key economic and governance terms of an investment, usually before definitive agreements.
Ticket Size
Ticket size is the typical amount an allocator invests in a single fund, deal, or commitment.
Tokenization (Private Markets)
The use of blockchain technology to represent fund interests or portfolio assets as digital tokens—enabling fractional ownership, 24/7 transferability, and programmable compliance for secondary trading and settlement.
Track Record
Track record is a manager’s historical performance and evidence of results, ideally tied to attributable decisions and outcomes.
Tracking Error
Tracking error is the volatility of the difference between a portfolio’s returns and its benchmark’s returns.
TVPI (Total Value to Paid-In)
TVPI is total value (distributions + remaining value) divided by paid-in capital for a private fund.
Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO)
A UBO is the individual who ultimately owns or controls an entity, even if ownership is held through other structures.
Underwriting
Underwriting is the evaluation process used to decide whether to invest, including thesis, risks, terms, and expected returns.
Underwriting Standards
Underwriting standards are the minimum rules and criteria a manager uses to approve investments consistently.
Unfunded Commitment
Unfunded commitment is the remaining callable amount of an LP’s total commitment that has not yet been paid in.
Unitranche
Unitranche is a single blended debt facility that combines senior and subordinated debt into one loan with one interest rate.
Valuation Policy
A valuation policy is the documented methodology a manager uses to value assets, especially illiquid holdings, for NAV and reporting.
Value Creation
Value creation is the set of actions a manager takes to increase the value of an investment beyond passive ownership.
Venture Capital Fund
A venture capital fund is a pooled investment vehicle that invests in early-stage, high-growth private companies.
Venture Portfolio Construction
Venture portfolio construction is how a venture manager designs the portfolio—check sizes, number of bets, ownership targets, follow-on reserves, and concentration into winners.
Venture Studio
A venture studio is an organization that repeatedly builds and launches companies in-house, combining capital, talent, and execution from day one.
Verification Status
Verification status indicates whether a specific field or record has been confirmed, partially confirmed, or remains unverified.
Vintage Year
Vintage year is the year a fund begins deploying capital, often aligned with its first close.
Volatility
A watchlist is a curated list of entities (allocators, managers, companies) a user tracks for changes, outreach timing, or diligence follow-up.
Warm Introduction Protocol
Best practices for leveraging trusted intermediaries to facilitate introductions: selecting right introducer, timing the request, providing context, coordinating follow-up.
Warm Path Discovery
Systematically identifying the most credible introduction routes to target decision-makers through shared connections, affiliations, or trusted intermediaries.
Watchlist
A watchlist is a curated list of entities (allocators, managers, companies, or profiles) you track for changes, outreach timing, or diligence follow-up.
Waterfall
A waterfall is the distribution framework that determines how cash flows are split between LPs and the GP, including return of capital, preferred return, catch-up, and carry.