Capital formation is moving closer to the centre of private-markets strategy. At SuperReturn International, Sasha Jensen, CEO, Jensen Partners, discussed why competition for experienced fundraisers is intensifying, how AI is changing the profession and why long-standing LP relationships remain difficult to replicate.
• GPs increasingly view capital formation as central to their future growth.
• Professionals with deep, long-standing LP relationships are in particularly high demand.
• AI can improve preparation and efficiency, but it cannot reproduce the history behind human relationships.
• Future capital raisers will need to combine interpersonal ability with technology fluency.
• Institutional and wealth teams are likely to become more specialised, regional and accountable.
Capital raisers move to the centre of GP strategy
Portfolio managers have traditionally been regarded as the most important professionals inside investment firms. Jensen believes that balance is changing. As GPs expand across institutional and wealth channels, the people responsible for attracting and retaining investor capital are becoming central to the firm’s future growth.
The engine and the fuel and the future of all of these GPs is sitting with the capital raiser.
Sasha Jensen, CEO, Jensen Partners
That strategic importance is increasing competition for talent and pushing compensation higher.
Demand is particularly strong for professionals with long-established LP relationships. Some are organised around regions, while others specialise in individual strategies or product ranges such as infrastructure, credit, real estate, real assets or private equity.
AI can augment a relationship but not create its history
Jensen Partners was an early adopter of technology and data in recruitment and capital formation. Jensen believes AI can help fundraising professionals become better organised, more informed and more efficient. But she draws a clear distinction between improving a relationship and replacing one.
AI doesn’t take your CIO to lunch.
Sasha Jensen, CEO, Jensen Partners
An AI agent may analyse portfolios, track performance or provide information ahead of an LP meeting. It does not possess the personal history created through years of conversations, changing allocations and shared experience.
LPs want to engage with people who understand their portfolios and know how they prefer to communicate. That context is developed over time rather than generated on demand.
What AI means for different generations
Jensen expects AI to have different implications depending on career stage. For experienced professionals, technology can augment an existing network and improve performance. For younger professionals, some routine responsibilities may be more vulnerable to automation.
Her advice to junior capital raisers is to start building direct LP relationships early. Human connection will help them stand apart from the growing number of professionals, and potentially automated tools, competing for investor attention. The strongest future profile will combine both sides: interpersonal ability and confidence using technology.
Specialisation grows across capital formation
Capital formation is also becoming more specialised. Generalists remain relevant when they cover a wide group of LPs within a defined region. But firms are increasingly aligning individuals with strategies such as infrastructure, credit, real estate and private equity.
This creates a more competitive hiring market, as experienced professionals move between firms seeking deeper product knowledge, established relationships and measurable fundraising records.
Institutional and wealth teams diverge
Jensen expects greater separation between institutional and wealth channels over the next 12 to 18 months. Rather than operating under one global head of capital formation, firms may increasingly appoint separate global leaders for institutional and wealth coverage, each with distinct ownership and accountability. Family-office coverage may move more directly beneath wealth teams. Further divisions are likely to develop by geography and region.
Fundraising becomes more local
Asset managers are also placing more capital-formation professionals directly in the markets where they raise money. Rather than covering Europe primarily from London, firms are building teams in cities across Italy, Spain, Germany, Switzerland and other markets. Local presence gives professionals greater proximity to investors and supports the long-term relationship building that Jensen believes remains the foundation of the industry.
Positive sentiment and continued hiring
Despite geopolitical uncertainty and concern about private-equity performance, Jensen describes sentiment at SuperReturn International as positive. LP attendance remained strong, capital-raising teams were holding intensive meeting schedules and secondaries were widely viewed as increasingly important to the functioning of private markets. Hiring across capital formation also continued, reflecting the growing strategic value placed on the function.
Technology may change how fundraisers work. It is not reducing the importance of raising capital or the human relationships on which that process depends.