How Altss sources and verifies private markets data
Altss uses documented public records and disclosures, organization submissions, and licensed sources where permitted. Source rights, collection method and factual verification are separate questions; consult the cited source and field-level provenance.
The OSINT-first approach
A record needs a source, a defined scope and a date. Altss uses public filings, disclosures, registries and other permitted sources to support private-markets research. Collection, factual verification and source-use rights are separate checks.
Review the evidence and any missing fields before acting. A newly modified page does not mean every underlying fact has just been verified; a historical measurement does not establish today’s coverage or throughput.
Our data sources
- 01Regulatory filings
- Form ADV — investment adviser registrations. Form D — Regulation D private placement filings. 13F — institutional holdings above $100M. Regulation A filings, state-level securities filings, public pension disclosures, sovereign wealth annual reports, public endowment reports.
- 02Public disclosures and meeting records
- US public pension investment committee meeting minutes. Sovereign wealth fund transparency reports (NBIM, NZ Super, Future Fund, AIMCo). University endowment annual reports. Private foundation allocation disclosures. Public company filings disclosing private markets exposure.
- 03Trade press and specialized publications
- Institutional press — Pensions & Investments, Institutional Investor, Private Equity International, and major regional press. Industry research and conference content. Published commentary and panel discussions.
- 04Infrastructure and domain intelligence
- Domain registration data for new fund launches and firm formations. SSL and hosting signals for infrastructure changes. Public-facing technology signals for product and platform launches.
- 05Professional network intelligence
- Structured professional data on role transitions, tenure, and career history. Industry conference speaker and attendee intelligence. Published thought leadership.
- 06Multi-language coverage
- Native-language OSINT monitoring in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, French, German, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese. Critical for comprehensive MENA, APAC, LATAM, and European coverage.
The verification layer
OSINT output has one structural risk: false positives from automated pattern matching. Altss addresses this with a specialized research team.
Research leadership. Altss's research operation is led by a team with intelligence-agency-grade data validation practices.
What the research team does. Validates OSINT output where precision matters (decision-maker contact, mandate interpretation, ambiguous signals). Checks whether a claim is corroborated by independent sources. Resolves conflicts between automated extraction and source data. Researches manually where OSINT signals are insufficient. Maintains a manual override layer that corrects edge cases.
Human-in-the-loop validation. For critical fields — decision-maker roles, direct contact information, mandate specifics — human validation precedes publication in the platform. Automated data surfaces with confidence flags so users can see each field's validation status and date, and whether its extraction was reviewed.
How records are verified and updated
- 01Source-specific verification
- Public records carry source-specific dates where available. No population-wide measured refresh cadence or universal verification deadline is established here. Page modified, source captured, fact observed, entity verified and aggregate measured describe different events. Check the date attached to the relevant claim; a missing verification date means unknown. Stored source history does not establish a customer-facing historical-analysis interface.
- 02Entity data — source-specific
- New LPs and GPs are added once they become publicly observable and pass review. Existing records are re-audited on a rolling basis, not on a fixed universal schedule. Mandate and strategy data change when a new disclosure is observed.
- 03Signal data — source-specific
- Material events such as personnel transitions, fund closings and policy changes can become observable through their sources. On-demand research and lookup are distinct from the freshness of every record. No universal disclosure-to-observation or signal-availability deadline is promised.
Data quality transparency
Each value is labelled on three separate dimensions: what kind of source stated it, how the value was produced, and what checking it has passed, as of a stated date. The three labels are always shown separately, never merged into one. This is Altss methodology, not an industry standard.
Evidence origin: what kind of source stated it
Shown for each source behind a value.
- Regulatory / public record — a filing to, or a record kept by, a regulator, statutory registry or court, retrieved from that body's own system.
- Official institutional source — an official publication of a public body, such as public pension board minutes or a statutory annual report.
- Disclosed — stated by the subject itself, in its own publication or in a statement attributable to it.
- OSINT-sourced — a publicly accessible source published by someone other than the subject, such as news reporting or a counterparty's announcement.
- Licensed / third-party source — obtained under licence, or privately, from someone other than the subject; not publicly accessible.
Derivation: how the value was produced
- Observed — stated in a source.
- Derived — calculated from observed values by a stated rule.
- Estimated — inferred where no source states the value and no rule produces it; shown with its method and, where possible, a range.
Validation: what checking the claim has passed
Always shown with its date.
- Unverified — held on its evidence as captured; no independent support and no completed review yet.
- Corroborated — supported by at least two independent sources that do not trace back to the same originating source.
- Research-validated — a reviewer checked the claim against its evidence and confirmed it on the date shown.
- Conflicting — sources give incompatible values for the same fact and the conflict is not yet resolved; the competing values are shown with their sources.
Legal, regulatory, tax and accounting statements in the reference pages
On reference pages that show a “Source check” entry in their record, every rule, threshold, exemption, deadline, tax treatment or accounting requirement is checked against the primary source the page cites (statute, regulation, regulator release or standard-setter text). Each check is made at the section or paragraph cited, for the jurisdiction named, and the entry gives the date of the check.
Two independent checks are run. A reviewer verifies each statement against its source. A separate checker then re-opens the source for every number, date, deadline and exemption condition, and any correction is checked again by a third reviewer. A statement that the primary text does not support is corrected or removed, never published on trust. Pages without a “Source check” entry have not been through this review.
Reference pages are general information about how private markets work. They are not legal, tax, accounting or investment advice.
What Altss does and doesn't do
- 01Altss does not
- Publish private customer information as public data, accept submitted claims without validation, or treat a source license as permission for unrestricted graph redistribution.
- 02Altss does
- Altss uses documented public records and disclosures, organization submissions, and licensed sources where permitted. Source rights, collection method and factual verification are separate questions; consult the cited source and field-level provenance.
Privacy and data ethics
Individual profile review. Anyone represented in the Altss platform can request review of their profile. Individuals can request correction of inaccurate information or redaction of specific fields. Applies globally, not only to EU GDPR subjects.
Firm-level review. Firms, family offices, and institutions can request profile review and data correction. Altss prioritizes accuracy and respects allocator privacy norms (particularly relevant for family offices and sovereign wealth funds).
No bulk exports. In-platform-only access is partly a product choice and partly a data ethics choice. Bulk export creates downstream risks for data subjects that Altss does not enable.
Regulatory compliance. Altss complies with applicable privacy regulations (GDPR, CCPA, and equivalents). Data processing is documented, auditable, and limited to private markets business intelligence purposes.
Why this matters for you
- 01If you're a GP fundraising
- Public records carry source-specific dates where available. No population-wide measured refresh cadence or universal verification deadline is established here. Page modified, source captured, fact observed, entity verified and aggregate measured describe different events. Check the date attached to the relevant claim; a missing verification date means unknown. Stored source history does not establish a customer-facing historical-analysis interface.
- 02If you're an LP evaluating emerging managers
- Regulatory filings can provide evidence of a fund launch. Check the filing date, reported facts and the limits of what the disclosure establishes.
- 03If you're an IR team
- Review source evidence alongside your team’s relationship context. A newly observed event does not mean every related field has been reverified.
Frequently asked questions
Can I audit the source for a specific data point?
For most fields, source attribution is visible in the platform. Enterprise clients can request deeper source audits on sensitive fields.
How do you handle conflicting information between sources?
The research team resolves conflicts through multi-source triangulation. Confidence flagging is visible to users for ambiguous fields.
What's your data retention policy?
Data is retained while operationally relevant. Individuals and firms can request data removal per our privacy policy.
Do you publish data quality statistics?
Aggregate data quality metrics are published periodically. Specific per-field metrics are available on enterprise engagements.
How do you stay within regulatory compliance?
Altss operates within US, EU, and other applicable data protection frameworks. Legal and compliance review is continuous.
Is Altss SOC 2 certified?
SOC 2 audit is in progress. Updates published as milestones complete.
Learn more about how Altss data supports your use case.
Book a demo — we'll walk through sourcing and verification for your specific coverage needs.