BlackRock Establishes Preeminent Private Markets, Technology, and Data Provider with Close of Preqin Acquisition
03 March 2025 - 10:52PM
Business Wire
BlackRock Inc. (NYSE:BLK) today announced the successful
completion of its acquisition of Preqin, a premier independent
provider of private markets data. This strategic transaction
strengthens BlackRock’s ability to serve clients’ whole portfolios
— across public and private markets — by combining investment,
technology, and data solutions in one platform.
Private markets are the fastest-growing segment of global
investing, with alternative assets projected to reach $30 trillion
by the end of the decade, according to Preqin data. As capital
markets evolve, private markets are playing an increasingly
important role in financing global growth. Institutional and wealth
investors continue to increase allocations to these markets as they
seek to optimize returns and diversify their long-term capital, yet
these allocations have been artificially limited by a lack of
transparency. With Preqin, BlackRock takes a major step forward to
address this need, positioning its private markets platform to
deliver investments, technology, and data holistically to power
next-generation investment solutions for clients.
Rob Goldstein, BlackRock’s Chief Operating Officer, said,
“BlackRock is a perpetual reinvention machine, evolving
continuously to stay ahead of our clients’ rapidly changing needs.
Today, clients are seeking a ‘common language’ for investing that
requires better data to drive investment decisions, manage risk,
and construct portfolios. With Preqin, a part of BlackRock, we will
seek to meet this need, accelerating clients’ ability to allocate
to the growth of private markets and furthering our aspirations to
deliver greater value across their whole portfolios.”
Mark O’Hare, Founder of Preqin, said, “For decades, investors in
private markets have lacked the robust data they need to make fully
informed decisions and incorporate private assets into their
portfolios at scale. By marrying Preqin with BlackRock’s technology
offering, we are even better placed to tackle this challenge and
help clients build more diverse, resilient portfolios by delivering
the transparency and insights they seek.”
Preqin, a part of BlackRock
From the outset, Preqin will extend BlackRock’s suite of
technology offerings, with clients continuing to use Preqin with
the same level of expert service. Preqin will remain available as a
standalone solution, while joint customers will benefit immediately
from product integrations, such as access to Preqin benchmarks
within Aladdin. Over time, BlackRock will integrate Preqin’s
proprietary data and research tools with Aladdin and eFront. This
unification of data, research, and investment processes will
transform private markets investing across fundraising, deal
sourcing, portfolio management, accounting, and performance
reporting.
Sudhir Nair, Global Head of Aladdin, commented, “We are on a
journey to make private markets more accessible and transparent for
clients through data and technology. We accelerated this ambition
in 2019 with our acquisition of eFront, enhancing private markets
investment technology and, in combination with Aladdin, enabling
the whole portfolio across public and private assets. Today, this
ambition takes another leap forward with the addition of Preqin’s
data, benchmarks, and analytics capabilities.”
The acquisition significantly enhances BlackRock’s investment
technology capabilities, marking a strategic expansion into the
rapidly growing private markets data segment, which is expected to
grow to an $18 billion total addressable market by 2030.
With a history spanning over 20 years, Preqin is an
industry-recognised independent data solutions provider in private
markets, empowering investors to make informed decisions by
providing data and insights that enhance transparency and access
across the global alternatives market. Its platform covers 210,000
funds and has over 220,000 users, including asset managers,
insurers, pensions, wealth managers, banks, and other service
providers.
Following the transaction, Preqin founder Mark O’Hare has joined
BlackRock as a Vice Chair.
Barclays served as lead financial advisor to BlackRock, with
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom acting as legal
counsel.
About BlackRock
BlackRock’s purpose is to help more and more people experience
financial well-being. As a fiduciary to investors and a provider of
financial technology, we help millions of people build savings that
serve them throughout their lives by making investing easier and
more affordable. For additional information on BlackRock, please
visit www.blackrock.com/corporate
About Preqin, a part of BlackRock
Preqin empowers financial professionals who invest in or
allocate to private markets with essential data and insight to make
confident decisions. It supports them throughout the entire
investment lifecycle with critical information and leading
analytics solutions. Preqin has pioneered rigorous methods of
collecting private data for over 20 years, enabling more than
200,000 professionals globally to streamline how they raise
capital, source deals and investments, understand performance, and
stay informed. Acquired by BlackRock in 2025, Preqin complements
the existing Aladdin technology platform to provide investment
solutions for the whole portfolio. For more information visit
www.preqin.com.
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Bart Nash bart.nash@blackrock.com
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