A capital markets CRM covers debt and equity raises rather than the sale of a company, and the differences matter more than most vendors admit. On a raise the list is investors rather than acquirers, the artefacts are a deck and a model rather than a CIM, and the outcome is an allocation rather than a single buyer. What does not change is the shape of the record, which is why one product can carry both. This page sets out the three places where a raise genuinely needs different handling.
The list is longer and expects more noes
A sale process might approach forty buyers and expect a handful of serious ones. A raise touches many more names and expects most of them to pass, which makes the tiering and the order of approach a much larger share of the outcome. A record that cannot express order of approach is missing the main lever on a raise.
Soft circles are a real state, and most records cannot hold them
An indication that is not yet committed is where a raise lives for weeks. A pipeline with only won and lost cannot describe the middle, and the middle is where all the work happens. Whether an investor is at soft-circled, allocated or wired is the daily question during a close, and a system that forces it into a percentage probability is answering a different one.
The fee is on what clears, not on what was asked for
Raises frequently close smaller than the mandate said at the start, and a fee model built on the ask is stale within weeks. Compute on the amount you expect to clear and recompute as the book changes: on this site's fee arithmetic, a 5% fee on $12,000,000 is $600,000, and every million the raise falls short is $50,000 off the top.
The investors who passed are next round's list
Whoever declined this round is the first call on the next one, and that is only true if the record still exists in eighteen months with the reason attached. Raises repeat on a much shorter cycle than sales do, which makes the discipline of recording a pass worth more here than anywhere else.
Questions people ask about capital markets crm
Does it handle debt and equity?
Both, because the record is the same shape: an engagement, a counterparty list, a stage and a fee. You set the stage names.
Is there a book-building module?
No. Book building on a sizeable syndicated deal is a specialist system and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise.
Can one firm run raises and sales side by side?
Yes, and most boutiques do. Each mandate carries its own type and stage names and they sit in one list.