The Private Equity (PE) industry is fast adopting advanced data analytics to leverage big data for more risk-averse decision-making and ultimately achieve outsized returns on their capital.
According to the Wall Street Journal, in 2018 over three-quarters of private equity executives used data analytics to conduct due diligence, and 68% leveraged the data during buyer negotiations.
A separate study published by Private Equity International found that 70% of firms believed that data analytics was more important over the past 12 months, and 69% believe the greatest impact of AI on PE firms will be felt within the next 5 years.
The industry as a whole has been slow in adopting new systems and tools to help gather and analyse big data, but it is now on the brink of rapid change as more firms acknowledge the growing necessity and importance of AI and data analytics.
Challenges Presented by Big Data to PE firms
While big data is undoubtedly valuable, the PE industry still faces a big problem. Given that the data needed is market and industry-specific, and each case is unique, Private Equity firms struggle to find an infrastructure that meets all of their demands, that is proven to be reliable and that can be applied across the board.
Another likely barrier is the usability of advanced processing tools. PE executives feel they lack the necessary skills to navigate new programmes and are resistant to transitioning away from legacy systems.
The result of this hesitancy is that despite the uptake in advanced data processing tools, overall, the industry still falls well behind the adoption curve. This presents an incredible opportunity for PE firms to capitalise on the situation, get ahead of the trend, and give themselves a competitive edge.
The sheer quantity of data year on year across the globe is another challenge in itself. In 2020, people created 1.7 MB of data each second.
The magnitude of the data, the velocity at which it is created, and the fact that the vast majority of it is unstructured all contribute to making the task of refining it seemingly unsurmountable.
Private Equity Data Solutions By Symanto
The Symanto Insights Platform has been designed specifically to make analysing big data from unstructured text data quick, easy and effective.
Symanto uses advanced Natural Language Processing AI technology to process any kind of unstructured text data. From product reviews on Amazon, comments on YouTube channels to surveys and forums. Wherever there is a conversation around the target brand, there is valuable data to be gleaned.
Use the Symanto Insights Platform to conduct brand health and competitor analysis as part of the due diligence process using vast amounts of relevant, publicly accessible data.
Diverse applications
The Symanto Insights Platform is connected to over 75 online channels including major social media and review sites, meaning you can easily scrape the sites most relevant to the target’s industry.
The platform automatically recognises and assigns topics and subtopics to each comment or review, meaning that the parameters are defined by the customers.
For even more accurate results, you can select from several predefined use cases including banking, car dealership, consumer electronics, eCommerce, hotel, pharma, restaurant and retail.
Easy to use and navigate
Excel sheets and big data are incompatible. Enter in the hyperlink and the number of data entries you’d like to crawl, and the Symanto Insights Platform does all the work for you. Data is scraped, processed, analysed and converted into intuitive, interactive data visualisations.
The user-friendly interface guides you through the report so that you can be left in no doubt as to what is represented on-screen.
While you’ll still benefit from the guidance and skill set of a data analyst, much of the heavy work is done for you by the Symanto Insights Platform, making it accessible and beneficial to anyone who wants to use it.
Comprehensive, actionable insights within minutes
As already discussed, the volume and velocity at which big data is created is a major challenge. The Symanto Insights Platform can process thousands of data entries within a matter of minutes. Stay on top of what customers are saying, with up-to-date insights.
Get Started With The Symanto Insights Platform
To find out more about how to use Symanto’s suite of tools for due diligence reporting, get in touch. Alternatively, book your free personalised demonstration of the Symanto Insights Platform today.
