Digital Markets Infrastructure

DMI connects fund managers and investors through a single digital environment - built in partnership with Microsoft - designed to simplify access, improve distribution and reduce operational friction across private markets.

Connect fund managers with a broader investor base
Enable efficient discovery and access to private funds
Streamline onboarding, subscription and servicing workflows
Reduce manual processes across the fund lifecycle
Improve visibility and control for investors

Private markets are growing at an unprecedented pace, but behind the scenes,the infrastructure hasn't kept up.Built in partnership with Microsoft Elseg's Digital Markets Infrastructure,DMI connects G PS:, LPS and service providers through asingle, secure and interoperable platform, while giving the end user a choice ofeither distributed Ledger technology or conventional access.G PS who are seeking to increase their assets under management often facefragmented workflows, inefficient onboarding and limiteddistribution.For LP's, discovering high quality opportunitiescan be time consuming, hard to access and often with limitedliquidity.That's why we're changing it by digitising the life cycle of privatefunds, from discovery and fundraising tosecondaries and servicing.For GPS, it means faster fundraising, global distribution and seamless investorengagement.For LP's, it unlocks smarter deal discovery,richer data, and access to a deep secondary market.DMI private funds bring scale, speed and security to private markets.And private funds are just the beginning.DMI by Elsegg.Unlocking access.Powering growth.Reimagining private markets.

Despite growing popularity and performance potential, the private funds landscape remains fragmented and inefficient. Investor reach is constrained, processes are manual, and critical data is often buried in static documents.

By digitising the issuance and discovery process, DMI eliminates friction where it matters most, unlocking efficiency for fund managers and improving access for investors.

With LSEG Workspace already connecting tens of thousands of investors, DMI can immediately create value by linking them to a growing universe of private funds.

Private funds lack a standardised infrastructure. DMI brings structure, transparency, and scale to a market that has long lacked integration and visibility.

1

DMI enables the tokenised representation of fund interests and digitises fund structures to unlock scalability.
2

Gain rights-based access to primary opportunities, with tailored deal discovery and smart filtering.
3

Streamlined transaction workflows accelerate deal times and reduce friction across primary and secondary markets.
4

DMI supports efficient secondary market transactions, enabling liquidity and portfolio management through digitised fund interests.
5

Transactions are finalised securely and quickly across both on-chain and fiat-compatible rails.
6

Assets are safeguarded through compliant, end-to-end lifecycle servicing infrastructure.

For investors (LPs)
For fund managers (GPs)

Cost-effective deal discovery
Time and cost-efficient sale process
Fund discovery
Secondaries (coming soon)

Streamlined post-trade processing
Reduced total cost of transaction
Streamlined fundraising
Fund servicing (coming soon)

In conversation with StepStone
Opening access to private markets

Hello and welcomeI’m Will Gow, Director of Private Funds for LSEGThis is the first in a series of conversationsfor LSEG’s digital markets infrastructure.Today we are focused on the importance of privatefunds to the UK wealth sector.It's a great pleasure to welcome Bob LongCEO of StepStone Private Wealthpart of the StepStone Group.LSEG and StepStone are collaboratingto improve access to private markets.Bob, welcome.Thank you.It's a great pleasureto have you here in the LSEG offices today.My pleasure.Just to start things, I think it would bevery helpful to understand a little more about StepStone Groupand specifically your role in the UK private markets.Happy to.So StepStone is a global private market specialistand by that what I mean is we do only private marketsand we do all the private markets.So private equity, venture capital, private real estate,private infrastructure and private creditand importantly we do each of those five assetclasses in each of the ways an investor could access themso we make primary fund commitmentsthe traditional way to access the private markets.We buy assets on the secondary market and we do co-investments.So if you think about the worldas a five by three matrix,what's special about StepStone is we do all 15 boxesand we do it on a global basis.So that's who we are as a firmYou call yourselves an allocator,what does that mean in this context?We allocate across the best managers in our viewin their various power lanes around the worldso we don't compete with the likes of Blackstone and KKRwe invest through them, with themand alongside them again in projects and companieswhere we believe they are particularly strongand so we're an open architecture firmas opposed to a proprietary firm,which is really consistent with the trendsyou see across asset management in our view.Why should the UK wealth investor want to allocate capitalto private funds?It is the most important questionand there are a handful of reasons.First and foremost, that's where the growth is,private companies are growing revenuenot just profits, but revenuesubstantially faster than public companiesaccording to our research, and have done soand in fact, that trend is actually acceleratingso that's where the growth this. Second, there are fewer and fewer public companies to invest in.Unfortunately, there are about halfthe number of US public companiesthere are to invest in as comparedto about 30 years ago.Then on top of that the companies that are publictend to be concentrated or at least the marketcap tends to be concentrated in a handfulof high profile sectors like technologyso to diversify your exposure across the real economya broader set of industries,you need to be in private companies.Moreover, to put a finer point on it,there are many household names like SpaceXfor example, that are private companiesand they're of substantial scaleand you simply can't access themif you limit yourself to public markets.One of the the biggest challengeshistorically has been access to private marketscertainly from the wealth perspective,how would you addresssome of these issues to access the historic barriers,how have those historic barriers evolved over time?Importantly, they've evolved a lot.So I break the barriers down into three categories,the first has been simple accessas you emphasisedhistorically, individual investors did not get accessto the same managers or the same dealsand importantly what we deliver at StepStonePrivate Wealth is access byindividual investor to the same caliber dealsat the same price at the same timeand that is changed dramatically for the wholehigh qualitywealth market as compared to even 5 to 7 years agoso access is important.Secondly fees, historically fees chargedto individual investors were materially higherthan those charged to institutional investorsand while there is still a premiumfor a very small investor,as frankly there should be in my viewbut it's really not meaningful.It's a very similar pricing for our servicesthat institutions receive.So pricing or fees is different.And finally transparency.Transparency has been dramatically enhancedand we believe we are a firmthat's really led in that regard in individual investorsas they access private marketstoday, understand what they're gettingand there's simply fewer to no surprisesour goal is no surprisesand not just in, what we chargeand how we charge it but what the underlying exposureis and issues like reportingso for example in our daily and our US fundsmost of them are daily valuation fundsso you really see on a current basiswhat the value of your investment isthose are big changes.How has access evolved for the UKwealth managers over the last 18 months?The main drivers of recent developments have beenan increasing recognition on the part of wealth managersthat they needed to diversifytheir client portfolioswith exposure to sectors beyond the high flying tech names.Wealth managers have recognised thatunfortunately, public markets tend to be drivenby the three M's,media, memes and momentum.Whereas private marketsare driven by fundamental valuation metricsand so that change has really driven interestin the private markets, as wealth managerswant their clients to have accessto a broader set of companiesthan you would get in the public marketsand those valued on a more fundamental basis.A question and a subject we hear a lot about inthe press these daysis the democratisation of private markets.Now I know you have some strong opinionson the subjectit would be great to hear about them.I do, I think democratisation is overusedin fact,I think where we are today is the institutionalisationof access.There's been accessto private market investments for individual investorsfor many years, in fact, decadesbut today, what you see is three key changesfirst, it's access to the same caliber dealsat the same time at the same pricenot special deals for the individual investorsfrankly, not adverse selection for the individual investorsso level playing field.The second would be feesso historically individual investors paid a meaningfulfee premium in comparison to the institutional investorsbut what you see today is a modest premiumand as you'd expect, an investor investingAnd as you'd expect, an investor investing$250,000 or often $50,000, does pay slightly morethan an institution investing tens of millions of dollars.than an institution investing tens of millions of dollars.But that premium today, inour view, is a reasonable one and makes sense.our view, is a reasonable one and makes sense.And finally, transparency.Historically, individual investorfunds in the private markets were hard to understandthey were opaquefee structures that was opaque reportingbut today what you see is very clearreporting and simple understandable fee structuresreporting and simple understandable fee structures.So I really think we're in the institutionalisationof access and we're beyond democratisation.This is probably a very good time to introduce the collaborationthat we're talking about of what we're doing at LSEGin the private market space and your expertise.We see this as a very natural collaboration.Our mission as a firm is to be the trustedpartner of choice globally in the private marketsand then within the wealth divisionour goal is to deliver those capabilitiesin the most efficient, transparentand convenient manner possible.So the partnership with LSEG with your venerable brandand your credibility and your depth of expertisewith StepStone we believe is particularly significant.When you add to thatwe're responsible for over $800 billionof private market investments and those are onlyprivate market investmentsand they span all the private marketsand most importantly if you looked at our pitch deckthere's one number I would suggestthat should really stand out to youand that is we invest.This is not our pipelinethis is what we invest $75 billion a yearin just the private markets,in over 600 separate transactionsso the combination in our view of LSEG and StepStoneis both natural and power for the individual investor.Evergreen structureshow are they different from the traditional closedend fund and what strategies have you seenthe biggest inflows in from a UKinvestor perspective over the last year or so?So evergreenfunds are different than the traditional drawdownfund or limited partnership where I make a commitmentto a fund and it's drawdown over timeso if I'm a individualinvestor and I might make a $250,000 commitmentto a leveraged buyout fund that's grown over timeyou're actually committed, you're not fully investedand those capital calls and then the money back to youwhen companies are sold are unpredictableso you're not really investedunlike you would be in a public stock or bond or a mutual fund so the evergreen funds take on the responsibilityto manage your cash and you're fully investedas soon as you make the commitment there's no difference between committed and invested and so that's the power of evergreen fundsthey provide you with the opportunityand this is a really important pointto potentially compound your capitalwhen you generate positive returns and keep it investedas opposed to the back and forth of a drawdown fund.In terms of what we've seen traction inI'd like to highlight four strategiesfirst would be S-PrimeS-Prime is our coreprivate markets model portfolio if you willso primarily private equity but meaningful exposureto real assets and private credit.So it's really an all in one or an initial investmentor frankly a potential only investment for a new personor new investor in the private marketsThat's S-PrimeSpring is our venture capital and growth fund.Spring has seen tremendous interest over recent monthsparticularly with the high profile successof so many technology and events and other companies.Spring invest in late stage venture capitaland growth equity, growth equity companiesare profitable but don't take on a lot of debtso these are high growth companies or companieswe believe will be high growthand we've seen tremendous interest there.Next would be our infrastructure fundcalled structure, global infrastructureinvesting in power data and transportation, essential servicesFinally credithere in the UK we offer a fund called S-Credthat is a direct lending fundand you know lending is really the least alternativeof the alternative assetsin fact I struggle to even call it alternative.It’s simply lending into merger and acquisition transactions,something bankshistorically did before the global financial crisisand do very little of todayand private capital has stepped in to do thatand that fund provides investors with the opportunityto access a meaningful durable yield streamso those are the four strategies.If we were to take your experiences in the USwhere you've seen inflows, which sectors and strategieshave been the most successfuland do you think they are repeatable in the UK?I do, I think the investor bases are somewhat similar.So obviously there's a tremendousamount of interest in private creditand for investors who are newto the private marketscredit, which is really the least alternativeof the alternative assets, it's just lendingit’s what banks used to dolend on mergers and acquisitionsand today banks do very little lending on mergersand acquisitionsand instead the private market has stepped into provide that capitalso lending or private credit is typically the gatewayfor the individual investor marketgenerally has the least riskand on the lower end of the return spectrum.We've also seen a tremendous amount of interest in Spring.That fund invests in late stage venture capitaland growth equity.So these are not start-ups in a garagethese are companies that have meaningful revenuesand are on their way to profitabilityin fact about half the companiesin that portfolio are actually profitableso if you think about venture capital it’s important to understandwhat you're investing in the case of Spring.In the US we've seen a tremendous amountof interest in our infrastructure fund.For American investors, the ideaof putting private capital into essential serviceslike the toll roadoutside my office in Charlotte, North Carolinathat's newif you're in the UK or other developed marketsinfrastructure investing not is new to youbut it's an exciting opportunityfor individual investors to access infrastructurespecifically because infrastructure typically hasa significant inflation protection component.One of the challenges I would I would put forwardfor private funds in particularand private markets has been the lackof transparency around information,what education do wealth investorsurgently need around fund structures,risk return profiles, access?It's a really important questionone of the things we lead with and believeis a true competitive advantage for StepStonePrivate wealth is investor educationand it's not just the investor but also their financial advisorin fact for us typically our clientour point of contactis the financial advisor or private bankerand so we seek to educate them at a very fundamental level.What are the private markets?How does a private equity fund work?To detailed, more specific topicslike exactly how do we do daily valuationour funds in the US,four of the five, all but but the venture capital fundare daily valued like a mutual fundthey're daily valuedwhereas our venture fund, to be clear, is monthly valuedbecause it takes us some time to do thatbut to your transparency pointthe ability to see what your investment is worththe next day,is really we find, giving comfort to financial advisorsand individual investors on the transparency point.That's something that LSEG, from a privatefunds platform perspective that we're buildingeducation is actually absolutelycentral and integral to what we're trying to offerwe want to help investors make better decisionsand to be able to accessthese private funds more efficientlyso I think the combination of a lot of the materialand data that you've aggregatedand collected over the years and your experiencewill be invaluable as we try and disseminatethis information will more broadly.Where are we going in the next 12 months,how do we help the UK investment communitycertainly from the wealth channels get more comfortablewith private funds, private marketsand how do we help them improve their access?Well again it starts with educationand one of the things we do is a series we callStepStone Academy, where we cover these topicsin order, in specific and in detail,so that investors and financial advisorscan understand themand frankly just understandthe terminology to start is really important.Secondly, implementation.So the new frontier, the next frontierfor financial advisers typically is implementation.Once they understand the valuethat private markets can bring to a portfoliotheir next question to us is, all right, where do I put it?How do I characterise it?How do I size it for clients?and importantly there, you're starting to see model portfolios.In some cases paper models, just recommended modelsfrom the top of the house or the CIO's officewithin a private bank or wealth manager but in some casesyou’re also seeing tradeable models like a single product with one ticket you can get access to a number of different strategies. One thing we really didn't talk about is liquidityand so when it comes to investor educationit's really importantthat investors understandwe're talking about semi-liquid funds,we are not magicians.we cannot magically deliver to individual investorsthe illiquidity premium of the private marketswhile also offering limitless instant liquidity.So educated investors are better investors for us.We don't want investors who are not planningto hold this for 2 to 3 to 4 years or more.That's not a good idea.Investors need to start with an illiquidity bucketand ask themselves,what is the pool of capital for which under the most extreme circumstances,I don't need access to it for at least a couple of yearsand then ask themselveshow do I get paid for taking on that illiquidity?And by the way, if you're not getting paidfor taking on the illiquidity, you shouldn't do it.But the fundamental question is, how do I get paidfor taking on some illiquidity,just like foundations, endowmentsand insurance companies do,and then do that in a manner that makes sense for you.If we're looking specifically at the evergreens,there are different windowsfor subscription periods versus redemptionso there's a period of riskand if you're opening upthese portfolios to a wider universe,some of them are going to want to be able to managethat window of riskso I think this is where we certainly see the opportunity forus to play a role in providing liquidity mechanismsthat allow the sort of the pressure to devolve.Exactly, and LSEG I believe is particularly well positioned to understandliquidity, educate investors and provide itwhere it's neededbut let's make sure everybody understands the basics.These semi-liquid fundsgenerally offer liquidity5% per quarterand importantly this is often misunderstood.That's not 5% of your investment,that is 5% of the fundso under most circumstances,most investors historically and we believe in the futurewill be able to get their money out on a few weeks noticesome cases in the US, it's a few days noticebut think a few weeks for here in Europeon a few weeks notice and they get it at 100% of netasset valueif they went to the secondary market,which would be hard for an individual.but if they did,would generally get a discount to net asset valueand they generally have meaningful transaction costs.These redemptions are roughlysimilar to what you'd see with a mutual fund.There's generally a little more paperwork,but it's a relatively smooth process and a relativelyprompt processso it's not the 15 year marriage of a traditionallimited partnership drawdown fund.The liquidity is not unlimitedand in the event, God forbid, we had a capital marketsevent or a broadening war in Europe for exampleno doubt we'd see more redemptionsthan we're offeringand we and the other high quality firmsand in that event again it's important to understandin that event, investors would be pro-ratedso imagine we had 10% of our infrastructure fund10% of the investors wanted all their money out in a given quarterwe offer 5%and we offer a minimum of five,putting aside whether we might increase that in that event, if 10% investors want outand we are offering 5%, everyone would get 50%of their money at 100% of net asset valueon relatively short noticewith relatively little transaction friction,and be free to come back the next quarterso it is not perfectit sits between the dailyliquid investments that you see on LSEGand the 15 year drawdown fund investments,but we believe it's a really useful hybridor compromise used properly by wealth managersto give their clientsmost of the benefit of the illiquidity premiumwith a tremendous amount of convenience.Clearly it's been extremely successful in the USand we're expecting to see the same in in the UK and EuropeIt's clearly resonatinginvestors get the joke.They understand that access to institutional caliberprivate markets in a format that is significantly betterdesigned for them, is a really appealing propositionand it’s driven substantial growth on our platformand similar platforms of quality around the world.We're very excited about the partnership with StepStone,we see the real combination of valueyou are the investment experts in private marketswe are building the rails, the plumbing if you like,that allows access,discovery and efficient workflowsassociated with investments being made into private funds.And I can tell you the lesson of the United Statesand the rapid growth in evergreen fundsover the last handful of years has been convenience wins.At every turn where we've found the opportunityto make it easierfor financial advisors to access high quality fundsIt's accelerated our growthand enhanced the client experience.Fantastic, Bob, thank you very much indeed.Thank you everyone for watchingfor more information please head to lseg.com/dmiand we very much look forward to seeing you all next timeThank you.

"Traditionally you needed millions locked up for years to access these assets, now that’s changing."

Workspace integration

Discover. Be discovered.

DMI is fully integrated with LSEG Workspace, enabling investors and fund managers to discover, evaluate, and act on private fund opportunities within their existing workflow.

Access primary fundraises directly from your Workspace dashboard
Rights-based visibility ensures relevant, compliant deal discovery
Secure document exchange and digital agreement workflows
Integrated communication and meeting tools for faster engagement

Learn more about LSEG Workspace

Press release

LSEG advances next generation of Digital Markets Infrastructure with on-chain settlement

The LSEG DSD, a market infrastructure solution for institutional market participants, will be fully interoperable, connecting traditional and digital markets.

Read the press release

Press release

LSEG launches Digital Markets Infrastructure for tokenised private funds

LSEG has launched its DMI platform and completed its first fundraise transaction, marking a major milestone in digitising private markets.

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Article

Enhancing the Evolution of Capital Markets

Learn how Distributed Ledger Technology is driving efficiency, scale, and trust across asset classes.

How tokenisation can unlock the next phase of private markets growth

With private markets now estimated at around $25 trillion in size and projected to represent 30% of global assets under management by 2033, many expect the question to shift from whether the market will broaden to how it will do so sustainably.

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Secondaries (in development)

Settlement

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What DMI delivers

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In conversation with StepStone

Opening access to private markets

Discover. Be discovered.

News & updates

LSEG advances next generation of Digital Markets Infrastructure with on-chain settlement

LSEG launches Digital Markets Infrastructure for tokenised private funds

Enhancing the Evolution of Capital Markets

How tokenisation can unlock the next phase of private markets growth

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