Private markets have tripled to more than $10 trillion.
The Episode at a Glance
Summary
Gareth Lewis discusses why the $10 trillion private markets industry remained analog for so long and what's finally driving digitalization at scale. The conversation covers why mega-institutions with billion-dollar IT budgets choose to white-label platforms like Delio rather than build in-house, the shift toward GPs wanting to own their own "operating system" and book of record, and how AI is accelerating product velocity. Lewis emphasizes that the biggest mistake firms make is solving isolated problems without a strategic end-to-end digital private markets strategy.
Guest
Gareth Lewis Founder and CEO of Delio Gareth co-founded Delio in his 20s with the thesis that private markets would undergo massive digital transformation. Over the past decade, he has built the platform to onboard over 50 financial institutions, currently managing billions in assets across hundreds of funds and deals simultaneously, operating in 18 countries.
In Gareth's Words
"The growth of private wealth investors has shifted requirements—they now expect a digital experience more in line with how people operate in other aspects of their life. It's become an expectation rather than a nice to have."
02:11 Digital Expectations & Private Wealth Growth
"Building end-to-end infrastructure in-house is a monumental task, irrespective of the size of the institution. As institutions get bigger, the complexity gets larger because they're working across multiple service lines, product sources, and distribution channels."
03:27 Why Institutions Choose White-Label Solutions
"The conversation around digitization is still a little bit ahead of where most are actually operating. The first wave of technology solutions were built to distribute products, not to solve technology needs in isolation, leaving a long way to go across the entire life cycle."
04:29 The Digitization Gap in Private Markets
"GPs are increasingly wanting to own their book of record on an internalized basis and control their operating system while working across different service providers. The terminology of 'operating system' is now much more common and understood than it was five or six years ago."
05:51 GPs Seeking Control of Their Operating Infrastructure
"AI has been transformational for our engineering velocity. The ability to take client feedback, visualize it, and implement it much more quickly has let us close the gap between customer relationships and our capacity to turn that into actual outcomes."
07:14 AI's Impact on Product Velocity
"The most common mistake firms make is being reluctant to look at things end-to-end. You need a strategic digital private markets strategy in place before you start, or you'll end up with sticking plasters over problems rather than long-term solutions."
08:17 Strategic Planning vs. Fragmented Approaches
"The most fascinating trend is larger infrastructure firms from other asset classes moving into private markets. Those that crack it—combining an established client base and service capability with what they've done elsewhere—bring a whole new wave of interesting competition and partnership opportunities."
09:15 Infrastructure Firms Entering Private Markets
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