Bringing private markets into the light

Institute of Managed Accounts Professionals

21 April 2026

As private markets move from niche allocation to mainstream portfolio staple, the industry is confronting a long-standing problem: how do you measure what you can’t easily see? The issue was canvassed by Emily Barlow, IMAP Podcast Host in conversation with Ari Rajendra, Head of Private Markets, S&P Dow Jones Indices.

Private markets have arrived. With global alternative assets under management projected to reach $32 trillion by 2030, and with the number of publicly listed companies declining, a greater share of economic activity is now happening away from public exchanges. Private credit has surged as an alternative financing source for companies and the long-standing trend of companies staying private for longer shows no sign of reversing. For advisors and allocators, this shift is no longer something to monitor from a distance – it will become a key part of investment portfolios.

This has resulted in a wave of product innovation, particularly the emergence of evergreen, semi-liquid fund structures, which has made private markets more reachable for wealth and wholesale investors. Blended public-private portfolios are now appearing in single structures.

But access without measurement is incomplete. This is a central challenge that the industry is now working to solve. Historically, private and public markets have operated in parallel silos, using different metrics, different reporting frameworks, and different standards. Tools to allow analysis and comparison of private market investments have not been available. Peer group comparisons, manager-reported internal rates of return, and rough cash-plus proxies have only provided general guides for investors.

“What’s needed is a common framework, one that allows seamless comparison between asset classes and enables improved decision making and allocation.”

— Ari Rajendra, Head of Private Markets Indices, S&P Dow Jones Indices

S&P Dow Jones Indices is among those leading what Rajendra describes as the “next generation of benchmarks”. While fund-level benchmarks have existed for years — typically reported quarterly on a lagged basis — what has been absent are asset-level indices capable of providing timely, standardised exposure data. The critical missing ingredient has been data itself: fragmented, inconsistent, and laggy by nature.

That is beginning to change. S&P DJI has collaborated with NewVest Management to create the S&P Private Equity 50 Indices, representing beta exposure to the top 50 private equity funds globally. The Indices are calculated for individual vintages – 2023 and 2024 so far – and take into account both invested and dry powder capital. This is a key feature in trying to quantify returns available from the allocation to private equity.

For private credit, a collaboration with Lincoln International, specialists in private credit valuation, has produced the S&P Lincoln Senior Debt Indices covering the direct lending market. In the late-stage venture space, where companies such as SpaceX and OpenAI reside, daily indices are already operational. Elsewhere, valuation frequency is moving from quarterly to monthly, with further improvements expected as data infrastructure matures.

The implications for advisors and investment committees are significant. Robust benchmarks act as education tools, allowing practitioners to see clearly what sits inside a portfolio. For asset owners and sophisticated institutional investors, they enable stronger portfolio construction, more informed manager selection, and greater confidence in allocation decisions. An independent benchmark adds an additional layer of governance and trust — increasingly important as private market allocations grow in scale and complexity.

Looking further ahead, the public market analogy — where indices gave rise to ETFs — offers a tantalising glimpse of where private markets could head. Hybrid ETF structures combining public and private exposures, particularly in credit, are already appearing in the US. Pure private market ETFs remain constrained by operational difficulties and the regulatory frameworks for now, but the direction of travel is clear. The more likely near-term vehicle remains the semi-liquid evergreen structure — better aligned with the liquidity profile of private assets and already gaining traction with wealth investors.

To listen to the podcast in full click here https://imap.asn.au/publications/podcast-series