Mercatus is excited to welcome Dilan Desai to our growing team as a London-based program manager. Dilan comes to us from Sustainalytics, where he worked with clients on their ESG strategies. He previously worked on implementations for Dynamo Software. We recently sat down with him to learn more about his new role and what brought him to Mercatus.
What is your role at Mercatus (what are you hoping to accomplish)?
I’m a Program Manager at Mercatus, working on implementations across our client base. I hope to provide clients with a strong onboarding process, delivering solutions to their complex problems and ultimately ensuring that our clients are maximizing value from the platform.
What is your career background?
Prior to joining Mercatus, I specialized within ESG at Sustainalytics, working as a client advisor to assist clients in their ESG journey. Additionally, my experience in private markets is directly related to my role at Dynamo Software where I worked as a hybrid CS/Consultant to ensure the successful implementation of projects across some of our largest clients.
In your past roles what are some unmet needs from private market investors around data management technology?
I envision two main challenges within the private markets currently:
First, many private market participants are managing data in multiple silos, meaning that data is not centralized and therefore is not easily accessible – increasing the amount of time required for an efficient analysis of data across a portfolio.
Second, there is an over-reliance on Excel which can be too dependent on manual, error prone processes to report investment data. This tends to have low auditability, higher usage (due to the manual process) and lower performance (multiple spreadsheets required to gain insights).
What excites you about Mercatus?
The software!
Mercatus provides a highly flexible platform, allowing for flexible data ingestion and configurable insights across multiple different asset classes in one platform (and not across multiple systems). In addition, our patented ModelSync technology allows clients to manage scenario analysis & valuations at scale by uniquely connecting to financial models.
I believe these differentiators place Mercatus in a unique position within the industry. It allows clients to increase efficiency (manual to automated processes), improve data governance (centralize data which becomes the single source of truth) and provide analytics & insights for better investment decisions.
How do you see private market technology evolving over the next decade?
The market continues to grow at a rapid pace, and I believe there will be a growing need for quick and efficient data analysis across asset types. Investors will utilize this data to make better investment decisions, for example by understanding how different pre-deal investments could impact the portfolio performance at investment. Therefore, rigid siloed systems will need to find ways to unite their data across platforms as investors continue to demand transparency and data capture at the asset level.
Moreover, I believe that ESG will be a big proponent of differentiation in the near future. We are living in a more responsible investment world, and this can be expected to impact the private markets either via LP or regulatory pressures.
What is your favorite / go-to Karaoke song?
Usher – Confessions, Pt. II
