NEWS STORY

SPEAKING A COMMON LANGUAGE: HOW DATA STANDARDIZATION WILL TRANSFORM PRIVATE MARKETS

The increasing demand for private market investments has driven a shift towards greater data transparency, with both a cultural and technological change on the horizon, according to the “Navigating Private Markets” webinar hosted by BlackRock Aladdin.

The adoption of a common language in public markets changed how the world invests. Private markets are moving in the same direction, although they’re still very much a work in progress. That progress entails overcoming data fragmentation, a lack of standardized data identifiers, and technology silos. These issues are being addressed, but often in isolation. Achieving the greatest impact requires collaboration across private markets to establish robust data reporting and technology standards, especially as private markets investing grows in scale and significance.

These were the central themes in a recent webinar hosted for the BlackRock Aladdin community, ‘Navigating Private Markets: The Intersection of Tech & Data’, where BlackRock panelists discussed the main challenges to presenting a comprehensive view of both private and public assets. Moderated by Shifra Ansonoff, Managing Director at BlackRock Aladdin, the panel included James Smallwood, Global Head of Private Markets Solutions Engineering at BlackRock Aladdin; Darren Cannon, Managing Director, Private Markets, BlackRock; and Sue Zheng, Global Engineering Lead for Whole Portfolio Solutions at BlackRock Aladdin.

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Having a consolidated Investment Book of Record (IBOR) gives you a consistent framework as you think about risks and data across asset classes. Some of the challenges we see today are due to the inconsistent analytic framework that underpins public and private market portfolios,” Zheng said.

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So, what key trends are shaping the future of investment management?

Challenges in private markets

Preqin projects global alternatives AUM to reach $30tn by 2030, with private equity more than doubling in size from $5.8tn to $12tn by the end of this decade. A growing share of capital is being raised from private wealth and retail clients, but this expansion brings a new set of operational complexities—such as how to balance the high volume of interactions demanded by retail investors, and the illiquidity constraints inherent in private markets.

The solution is a common investment language built on data standardization, which will allow the industry to scale their data infrastructure to handle the new sources of capital.

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We're starting to get constrained with institutional players, and the wealth and retail channels are the prize in expanding market presence. We need to invest where the puck is moving to,” said Cannon.

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Delivering the whole portfolio solution

Identifying and designing a common data language across private and public markets is a crucial first step for the future of portfolio management and risk analysis. The market needs consistent data identifiers to enable accurate risk evaluation across liquid and illiquid investments, and to provide a clear understanding of exposures and potential risks.

This is not just a technology challenge. It’s a cultural challenge within the industry, which needs common formats, common definitions, and common taxonomies, whether for capital call evaluations or company KPIs.

Technology and data together can support asset owners and asset managers to manage the full private markets investment lifecycle with greater transparency, control, and confidence. This makes it possible to provide whole portfolio solutions where multi-asset managers can manage their investments across the public and private markets from front office to back office.

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank is a prime example of this need for cross-portfolio visibility, as Cannon explained.

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“As we were leaving the office on Friday night, the question was posed to me and my team, where are we exposed to Silicon Valley bank? And there were probably a hundred different vectors of the information that we had to slice, but I was able to go to one system and see: where is Silicon Valley Bank a lender? Where is Silicon Valley Bank a counterparty custodian? Where are we using it in our funds?

We were able to slice and dice all that data on how we were interacting with Silicon Valley Bank because we were using a single platform to operate our business. And that has happened a hundred times over,” Cannon said.

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The integration of data and technology

Central to the Aladdin platform is its whole portfolio solution for investors, including compliance monitoring to help them navigate regulatory requirements. According to “The Way Forward” 2025 white paper from BlackRock Aladdin, more than two-thirds of investors surveyed reinforced the idea that having a single view across public and private holdings is crucial to managing investments.

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When public markets correct sharply, the relative weighting of private assets goes up, not because they've increased in value but because everything else has shrunk. Without that data all in one place, it’s easy to misinterpret your portfolio mix. You could have breaches in your allocation, or liquidity strain. It’s fundamental to asset allocation. To achieve that, you need a huge amount of market data and modeling capabilities. We're bringing those critical components together across public and private markets,” Smallwood said.

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BlackRock has continuously evolved the Aladdin platform to help clients solve more, connect more and do more—whether that be expanding its whole portfolio capabilities or data offerings, or accelerating how it delivers and services clients via AI.

The Aladdin platform is using machine learning tools to extract and process large volumes of unstructured data to transform it into usable information for clients’ analytics. AI agents embedded across its public and private market solutions enabling users to interact and analyze portfolios quicker, using natural language.

Unlocking the private markets investment process is going to take the combined efforts of the whole industry.

Learn more about how Aladdin, inclusive of Preqin, is providing integrated technology and data solutions to enable clients to unlock opportunities in private and public markets. Contact us to speak with an expert.