iLEVEL sold to Blackstone-owned company

Portfolio monitoring and reporting software provider iLEVEL Solutions was sold to Ipreo Holdings, a data provider acquired by The Blackstone Group and Goldman Sachs’ merchant banking unit from Kohlberg Kravis Roberts last year for close to $1 billion.

iLEVEL was initially created by Blackstone for its own internal use in 2006 before spinning the service out in 2010. The company allows GPs to more easily capture data from portfolio company executives and share it with LPs via online portals and reporting software, among other services, and quickly became one of the most popular technology services in the industry.

Aside from providing market data, Ipreo built its reputation on end-to-end bookbuilding systems, roadshow management platforms and electronic document delivery. Traditionally, the company has offered software services in equity, fixed income and the syndicated loan markets, but recently expanded into the alternatives space with the acquisitions of Shareholder InSite and ClearMomentum – a strategic acquisition that iLEVEL executives may have appreciated as private equity managers expand into new investment strategies and search for integrated reporting platforms.

iLEVEL shareholders Hamilton Lane and Duff & Phelps agreed to roll over a “significant portion” of their ownership interests into Ipreo, according to an Ipreo statement. Additional financial terms were not disclosed.

The acquisition will facilitate more data alignment between GPs and LPs at a time when there is “a need for greater transparency in the alternative assets space,” Kevin Marcus, president and COO of Ipreo, said in the statement. “Trillions of dollars of private equity investments have been made, but the technology has not kept pace.”

Marcus said both private equity firms and LPs alike are interested in transparency. “What we're trying to do is make it easy and seamless for the information to flow in all directions, and the GPs can take that information and fulfill an LP's request.”

iLEVEL chief executive Kevin Black said the merger will deliver long-term benefits to iLEVEL and enable Ipreo's private market clients to manage diverse tasks through a single integrated platform. He will oversee Ipreo's newly formed private capital markets division as a result of the acquisition. “Now, there are even more increasing demands from LPs, so it's all about providing greater transparency.”