The 10 Best CRMs for Investment Firms to Consider in 2024

CRMs are the lifeline to any investment firm. From data integrity to better client service, they can transform the way you do business every day, adding time back into your day and making meetings more productive. 

However, CRMs are only as good as the information within. Which is why, at Dakota, we’re strong believers in the power of accurate data. A CRM solves a lot of data problems, but only really works if it’s well organized, accurate, and updated regularly. With the focus of strong data in mind, we’ve compiled a list of the 10 best, high-quality CRM options for 2024. 

While some of these options focus on certain asset classes like long-only, private equity, private real estate, or hedge funds, others are more general and can help you take your data to the next level by pulling in additional data sources. It all depends on what you want your CRM to do.

In this article we’re reviewing the 10 best CRM platforms on the market for 2024 and what they have to offer. By the end of this article, you’ll have a better understanding of each so your team can find the best data partners for your needs.

Salesforce

Salesforce is one of the most widely-recognized CRM options available, originally created for the investment management industry in 1999. Today, the CRM is tailored to morph into any industry. There are countless use cases, customizations, and possibilities for you within their systems, and will accommodate every team in your organization. From sales and marketing, to IT to customer service, Salesforce is a scalable solution. 

Customer360 is Salesforce’s all encompassing CRM which includes all their apps. In their words, a subscription to Customer360 allows you to work smarter and be more productive with connected data, trusted AI, and the #1 AI CRM. Learn more about their apps here.

Microsoft Dynamics

While Microsoft Dynamics is a smaller player compared to Salesforce in terms of size and number of customers, they are a widely used and respected CRM throughout several industries including financial. In their words, Dynamics 365 is a portfolio of intelligent business applications that delivers superior operational efficiency and breakthrough customer experiences enabling businesses to become more agile and reduce complexity without increasing costs.

Dynamics 365 is tailored to fit you and your business for sales and marketing, services, finance, and supply chain industries.

Altvia

Altvia is a CRM built for alternative investments firms. It’s built on Salesforce, and offers a highly customized solution for all types of alternative investment firms. In their words, Altvia is the market-leading platform with unmatched expertise to help you seamlessly evolve and manage complexity as your firm grows, your funds multiply, and your LP base expands

Altiva has helped to redefine the relationship between GPs, LPs, and Portfolio Managers, allowing them to raise and deploy capital, manage investor relations, deliver business intelligence, and ensure compliance all within the same system. Since their platform is built on Salesforce, you’re able to connect to thousands of apps directly from AppExchange.

Backstop Solutions

Backstop's CRM was one of the first investment-specific CRMs on the market. In their words, Backstop’s innovative technology empowers you to unlock data, drive effectiveness, foster collaboration and enable swift, confident investment decisions. 

Backstop works to provide institutional investors and LPs, private fund managers (GPs), as well as consultants, advisors, and OCIOs with the foundation needed to manage clients’ and partners’ activities in one central database.

DealCloud

DealCloud works within a variety of industries to help streamline business. In their words, DealCloud technology empowers you to harness the cumulative intellectual capital of your people and processes.

This platform helps you manage relationships and extend your pipeline. In addition, DealCloud helps build a single source of truth by connecting with other external solutions and third-party data providers.

SatuitCRM

SatuitCRM is specifically designed as an asset management solution for wealth management, hedge funds, private equity, and institutional asset management companies. With a subscription to this platform, you’re able to track both clients and prospects alongside their interactions and activities, and helps to track data sources and the ever-changing compliance regulations that accompany them. 

Also of note, SatuitCRM may be installed as a cloud solution, or installed on your instance. Satuit offers an array of products and solutions, giving your firm the ability to decide on the best fit for you. It’s fully integrated with industry third party partners, and allows you to easily manage sales and client data.

Dynamo Software

Dynamo Software is built for fundraisers in the alternative investment ecosystem. In their words, they have worked over 20 years to develop a configurable, integrated platform designed to meet the front-to-back office needs of GPs, LPs, and service providers.

Dynamo is a cloud-based solution featuring personalized tools for mass communications, and allows integration with third-party data providers to help your firm run efficiently and tailor to your needs.

Affinity

Affinity helps analyze billions of data points to help you surface the people and companies that matter most to you. Affinity’s CRM is specifically designed for private capital deal making through bringing together relationship intelligence, deal sourcing, deal flow management, and analytics. 

With automated CRM records, Affinity saves hours of manual data entry and updates a year. No need to worry about missing an interaction or follow up, just focus on quickly moving deals forward.

Juniper Square

Juniper Square coins themselves as the universal system for private investment partnerships. They support real estate, private equity, and venture capital firms of all sizes. With a Juniper Square subscription, GPs and LPs are able to connect, communicate, and collaborate throughout the entire private investment lifecycle.

Features of Juniper Square’s CRM include flexible tools, automated capital support, and enterprise-class data security so GPs can have a comprehensive and scalable suite of solutions to meet the needs of any investor. 

HubSpot

HubSpot is designed for any industry. With over 86,000 customers, Hubspot is a well-recognized CRM and inbound marketing solution. This software can help all aspects of your business run more effectively, with platforms that help with everything from marketing and sales to customer service.

With a HubSpot subscription you’ll be able to manage your pipeline with complete visibility, log sales activity automatically, and see lead information all in one place.

Which of these CRMs is right for you?

You’ve reached the end of a pretty long list, so you might be wondering: what’s next? When it comes down to it, a CRM is only as good as the data within it. So, the question becomes, which kind of CRM will best allow your firm to manage your data? 

If you’re an investment firm, you might have more budget available, and tons of data to manage. You also have things like compliance and time to worry about, and want the best, most reliable option for your sales team. 

  • If you’re an investment firm looking to fundraise with a customizable and scalable CRM across all channels, Salesforce is best for your needs.
  • If you’re looking for a smaller scale CRM that isn’t as large as Salesforce and still looking to fundraise across institutional channels, SatuitCRM, Backstop, or DealCloud are your best options.
  • If you’re an investment sales professional working with alternative investments, Altvia, Dynamo, or Juniper Square are best for you.
  • If you are working directly with private capital deal making, Affinity is the CRM you’re looking for.
  • If you’re a smaller business that isn’t necessarily in the investment space, or you’re looking for a more general CRM, Hubspot or Microsoft Dynamics are your best options.
  • Lastly, if you’re an investment sales professional looking for a solution that feels more like a shared database, you may need something that’s a little more than a typical CRM. Dakota Marketplace is Dakota’s answer to the countless hours spent cleaning up and managing data. It’s a shared source of accounts and contacts, housed in a database that is built by fundraiser, for fundraisers. Our Investment Sales team can attest to the fact that it is constantly updated and refreshed, because we’re the ones doing it.

To explore the Dakota Marketplace platform, start your free trial here.

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Written By: Morgan Holycross, Marketing Manager

Morgan Holycross is a Marketing Manager at Dakota.

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