Private Equity CRM Software Guide

Affinity

Founded in San Francisco in 2014, Affinity is a Venture Capital-focused CRM platform. The software was built around native integration with email providers (Gmail or Outlook) and differentiates through strong Relationship Intelligence functionality.

Affinity has strong traction among Venture Capital funds, however has had a more limited relevance in the Private Equity market due to the specifics of that customer segment.  

• Pricing: $2000-2700 per user per year
• Strengths:
  • Modern tech stack and user interface
  • Strong Relationship Management and people intelligence functionality
• Weaknesses:
  • Very VC-focused workflow
  • Recent expansion into non-financial use cases (e.g., Affinity for Manufacturing - https://www.affinity.co/industries/manufacturing)

Attio

Attio is another London-based platform that had its roots in the private markets. The company has developed a very modern and flexible platform for managing contacts, sales pipeline and various fund related administrative tasks.

At first Attio targeted VC funds as its core market, however has since pivoted to the broader generic CRM market offering industry workflows for start-ups and scale-ups as well. We would not actively recommend it for new VC customers as they are clearly prioritising non-finance customers for their product roadmap / features.

• Pricing: Free-$130 per user per month, depending on the size of the organisation
• Strengths: Visually appealing user interface, adaptability to individual workflows, and a strong focus on data-driven insights
• Weaknesses: Recent pivot towards generic industry market, which may result in limited exposure and adoption among VC/PE firms

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Zapflow

Founded in Helsinki in 2015, Zapflow is an investment management platform tailored for Venture Capital and Corporate teams. The platform offers a suite of tools designed to streamline deal flow management, fundraising, investor relations, CRM, compliance, and portfolio management.

• ‍Pricing: Modular pricing model, starting at $1,995 per month per team
• Strengths:
  • Comprehensive Feature Set, including some KYC and Compliance functionality‍
• Weaknesses:
  • Very old school user interface with manual data entry
  • Limited market presence outside of Finland / Nordics

Altvia

Founded in Colorado in 2006 by Kevin Kelly, who previously was a CTO at another private equity fund. Since then, the company has scaled to over 40k users and completed a sale to Bow River Capital in 2019 and subsequently Marlin Equity in 2022.

Altvia offers a full-suite CRM however differentiates through a focus on Investor Relations functionality (e.g., LP communications, fundraising, virtual data room, etc.). Their platform is built on Salesforce, which gives rise to a number of disadvantages when it comes to the user interface and flexibility of the software.

• Pricing: Module-base pricing
• Strengths:
  • Full-suite solution
  • Strong LP / IR features
• Weaknesses:
  • ‍Built on top of the Salesforce platform (old school user interface and manual data entry)
  • Lack of control over their own core infrastructure

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AtomInvest

Founded in London in 2017, Atominvest offers a much wider functionality suite than CRM incl. investor management, portfolio monitoring, and fund administration.

• Strengths:
  • Comprehensive / widefeature set, including many adjacencies (e.g., compliance, KYC, AML)
  • Modern user interface, making it easy to use for both internal staff and investors‍
  • Customizable modules

• Weaknesses:
  • Limited CRM and Relationship functionality (due to lack of focus on this area)
  • Limited adoption among deal teams
    

Pricing / duration / terms

Pricing

Private equity CRM platforms typically charge license fees on a per-user basis, either per month (p.m.) or per year (p.a.).

The total annual cost is determined by multiplying the per-user fee by the total number of users, which usually includes not only investment professionals but also assistants, finance teams, and other support functions.

Duration

Contracts can be structured as annual or multi-year agreements, with terms often extending to three or five years.

Larger providers, such as DealCloud or Salesforce, typically encourage multi-year commitments to secure long-term customer retention and deeper ecosystem integration.

Implementation Fees

In addition to license costs, vendors charge separate fees for data migration and onboarding. These are one-time, professional service costs that can range from 10% to as high as 70–80% of the first year’s total license fees.

The exact amount depends on the complexity of the migration and the sales negotiation process.

API Integrations

API integrations are essential for automating data ingestion, reducing manual entry, and ensuring that CRM platforms remain up to date with real-time information.

The two most common types of integrations are:

1. ‍Email and calendar syncing (typically with Outlook or Gmail), which captures communications and meetings
2. ‍Financial data integrations - which pull company information from third-party sources like market intelligence platforms or financial databases

These integrations streamline workflows, enhance data accuracy, and improve overall CRM efficiency.