Fundraising software for private funds

What a raise actually needs to track

A raise looks like a sales pipeline and is often run in one, which is why so many funds end the raise with clean pipeline data and messy fund data.

The difference is that the last stage of this pipeline creates binding terms. A side letter agreed in a hurry at second close is a term you have to honour every quarter afterwards, and it needs to be readable by whoever runs the fund in five years.

• Prospective investors, their type and their mandate fit.
• Status by stage, with the date the status changed and who changed it.
• Documents sent and returned, with versions.
• Committed amounts by vehicle, and the close they were admitted in.
• Side letter terms, in a form somebody can search later.
• Placement and introducer arrangements, where they exist.

How the raise runs in Reuben AI

The raise sits in the same workspace as the running of the fund. Capital and investors, fund economics, performance and investor communications are tabs of one thing, not separate products.

Commitments recorded during the raise become the investor records the fund runs on. When the first call goes out, it is calculated from those commitments rather than from a copy of them.

Fund Design controls branding, so documents and the investor portal carry the manager's identity rather than the software's.

Raise obligations, including the ones that only apply because of a specific structure or jurisdiction, sit on the compliance calendar from the day they are created.

First time and emerging managers

A first fund is where the cost of doing this badly is highest and the budget for doing it well is lowest. Most first time managers run the raise in a spreadsheet and a CRM, then spend the first two quarters after close rebuilding the fund records by hand.

The practical advice is to record commitments once, in the system that will run the fund, and to write down the side letter terms in the same place. It costs nothing extra during the raise and saves the rebuild afterwards.

• Record a commitment once, in the system the fund will run on.
• Capture side letter terms as terms, not as an attachment nobody reads.
• Decide the reporting cadence before the first close, not after it.
• Set the compliance obligations up while you still remember why they exist.

Compared with the usual alternatives

A general CRM will run the pipeline well and knows nothing about a fund. A cap table product is built around a company's shares. Fund administrators will take clean data and produce the books, and are the right answer for the licensed work, but they are not where you run a raise.

Carta, Juniper Square, Allvue, Intapp and DealCloud all describe parts of this on their own sites, and buyers frequently run two or three of them together. The question worth asking is how many systems the same commitment has to be entered into before the fund is live.

What stays off the platform

Being honest about the boundary is more useful than claiming everything. Reuben AI is not an auditor, a law firm, a tax agent, a bank or a licensed administrator, and it does not sign anything that those roles have to sign.

What the platform does is hold the records those people need in a form they can accept, and produce the packs on request rather than at the end of a two week scramble.

• Audit opinion and assurance work: your auditor.
• Fund formation documents and legal advice: your counsel.
• Tax filings and returns: your tax adviser.
• Holding client money and moving it: your bank and payment providers.
• Licensed administration or trustee duties where local rules require a licence: your administrator or trustee.

Common questions

Can I run a raise in a CRM?

You can run the pipeline in a CRM. What a CRM will not do is turn a signed commitment into a live investor record with a call schedule, capital account and reporting obligation attached.

Does Reuben AI handle multiple closes?

Yes. Commitments are admitted in a close, and the close they were admitted in stays attached to the record, which is what equalisation and later reporting depend on.

What happens to side letter terms?

They are recorded as terms against the investor, so the person running the fund later can find them without reading every document again.

Is this suitable for a first fund?

Yes, and the free workspace exists so a first time manager can set the fund up properly before there is any budget for software.