Top Institutional Investor Databases for 2024: What Do They Cost? (2024)

Salespeople are expensive, and any firm leader wants their salespeople to be productive. Having them perform extensive research on who to call on is counterproductive. Thus, it has been important to us to supply our Investment Sales team with highly accurate and qualified accounts and contacts to call on.

Institutional and intermediary investor databases can provide a good foundation of contacts for sales professionals, depending on the database you are looking at. It is crucial to be very clear on what you want and to consider what is most useful to you in your career.

As a fundraiser for the past 25 years, the only thing that matters, in my opinion, is qualified leads of investors that buy what you sell - both strategy (asset class) and structure (mutual fund, LP, ETF, separate account).

Key questions to ask to make your database decision:

1. What channel(s) do you cover? (Consultants, RIAs, Banks, BD, Direct Pensions, Sub-advisory, etc.)

2. What is your product structure? (Mutual Funds, Separate Account, LP, ETF, CIT, etc.)

In this article we will review a list of the top leading institutional investor databases and their approximate price. After reading this article, you’ll have an understanding of these nine databases and their area of focus to make a decision on which is best for you and your firm’s needs.

These prices are an estimate as they change frequently, and most database companies will negotiate. The descriptions are from each company’s website.

Money Market Directory (MMD)

Money Market Directory coins themselves as a world-leading provider of financial information services. Their database offers insights, leading data, and technology solutions. With a subscription to this database, you’ll be able to pinpoint prospects, identify new sales opportunities, and build lasting relationships using market leading data.

Estimated Cost: $5,000 - $15,000

Focus: Institutional Investors

Nasdaq eVestment

Nasdaq eVestment brings transparency and efficiency to the global institutional market to give managers, asset owners, and consultants the tools to make data-driven decisions, deploy their resources more productively, and ultimately realize better outcomes. They coin themselves as the source for institutional intelligence.

PitchBook

According to PitchBook, they are the premier resource for comprehensive data on the global capital markets and proprietary research and insights. Their database is designed to empower your best work, and help capital market professionals win what’s next.

With a subscription to PitchBook’s database, you’ll have access to research and analysis of companies, deals, funds, investors and service providers across the entire private investment lifecycle. To explore more of what’s included in their Desktop subscription, you can explore their website.

Estimated cost: ~$24,000, a free trial of the PitchBook desktop is available

Focus: Private Equity, Venture Capital, M&A

Preqin

Preqin says they are the home of alternatives, empowering the global alternatives community with essential data and insight. With a Preqin subscription, you’ll have access to their data, analytics solutions, and insights all letting you see into the industry.

Estimated cost: $5,000 - $30,000, there are three tiers to a Preqin database subscription

Focus: Alternatives

Dakota Marketplace

Keeping data up-to-date is time-consuming, and it requires dedicated resources. Most firms rely on salespeople to do the updating, and that is a weak strategy at best. Investment salespeople need to be presented with accurate, up-to-date leads so they can focus on what matters most: setting up meetings to fundraise. Dakota Marketplace does exactly that.

If you...

• Want access to alternative investments, Preqin caters for those types of managers.
• Are a Private Equity Fund Manager and you want to know data on both allocators and individually-owned companies, PitchBook is a good choice.
• Want a more institutional-focused database, Money Market Directory or Nasdaq eVestment are both options for you.
• Are interested in a database that is all encompassing for institutional and intermediary channels globally including the US and Canada, Dakota Marketplace is the database for you.

To start fundraising today, start your free trial of Dakota Marketplace.