Clarus

What do they actually do

Clarus is an AI-first platform for limited partners (LPs) that ingests manager materials (VDR uploads, update packs, PDFs, spreadsheets) and turns them into reconciled valuations and source‑cited insights. The product extracts figures and footnotes, links each data point back to the original documents, and outputs a concise view so an LP can understand a fund or company quickly (clarus.finance, LinkedIn).

Today it’s positioned as an end‑user tool for LP investment and operations teams, producing reconciled marks, short source‑linked summaries, and portfolio tracking views (clarus.finance, LinkedIn). The company is early‑stage (YC Fall 2024) with a very small team, consistent with an active pilot phase (Y Combinator, LinkedIn). Public materials don’t show detailed UI, pricing, or customer lists.

Who are their target customer(s)

• Chief Investment Officer / Portfolio Manager at an LP: Spends hours reading manager reports to judge whether marks are reasonable; wants a fast, defensible summary with links back to sources (clarus.finance, LinkedIn).
• Due‑diligence or Research Analyst: Manually extracts figures and footnotes from VDRs and updates across multiple funds/vintages, which is slow and error‑prone; needs quicker extraction and verification with citations (LinkedIn).
• LP Operations / Fund Accounting Team: Reconciles manager‑reported marks with internal books and spreadsheets under reporting deadlines; needs automated reconciliation and portfolio tracking to cut manual work (clarus.finance, LinkedIn).
• Compliance / Internal Audit Officer: Must prove provenance during audits and reviews, but evidence is scattered across emails, VDRs, and PDFs; needs source‑linked outputs tied to original documents for auditability (LinkedIn).
• OCIO / Multi‑family Office / Consultant managing client LP portfolios: Normalizes reports from many managers and clients, making consistent benchmarking hard; needs reconciled marks and cross‑manager portfolio views (Y Combinator, clarus.finance).

How would they acquire their first 10, 50, and 100 customers

• First 10: Run high‑touch pilots sourced via YC/founder network and direct CIO/research head outreach at small‑to‑mid LPs and OCIOs; offer 1–2 week, paid or subsidized pilots where Clarus does concierge ingestion and delivers source‑cited, reconciled reports (clarus.finance, LinkedIn).
• First 50: Standardize the POC into a templated onboarding kit (sample report, data checklist, clear success metrics) and convert pilots to paid accounts; start small distribution partnerships with fund administrators, OCIOs, or consultants to drive referrals.
• First 100: Productize common connectors and enterprise controls (SSO, audit trails) and publish quantified case studies to shorten cycles; add a 2‑person enterprise sales + CS team to run demos, manage procurement, and expand channel partnerships.

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

The product targets institutional investors operating in private markets, a pool of roughly $20–22 trillion in 2024 when including broader forms of private capital (McKinsey global private markets report, PDF).

Bottom-up calculation:

A practical buyer universe is in the low thousands: Preqin’s Institutional Allocation Study samples ~4,255 institutions allocating to alternatives. If Clarus sells to ~2,000–4,000 active allocators at an average $75k–$150k ACV, that implies a software SAM of roughly $150m–$600m (Preqin Institutional Allocation Study 2024).

Assumptions:

• Active buying segment is ~2,000–4,000 institutions drawn from the broader institutional universe (Preqin sample as a guide).
• Average annual contract value in the $75k–$150k range for enterprise LP workflows (seats, funds processed, integrations).
• High‑value segment focus (pensions, endowments, insurers, OCIOs) with standard enterprise procurement and security requirements.

Who are some of their notable competitors

• BlackRock / eFront: Enterprise private‑markets analytics and portfolio monitoring used by institutional investors for valuation oversight and whole‑portfolio views (eFront, Aladdin). Clarus focuses on AI extraction and source‑cited reconciliation from manager documents.
• Allvue Systems: Fund accounting, portfolio monitoring, and investor‑portal software for private capital managers and allocators (Allvue). Clarus competes at document ingestion and fast, source‑linked mark reconciliation rather than end‑to‑end fund accounting.
• PitchBook: Private‑market data and research (deals, comps, valuations) with APIs and desktop tools (PitchBook). Clarus positions itself as a document‑centric verification layer, not a market‑data provider.
• Preqin / Allocator Hub: Specialist private‑markets data and LP analytics/benchmarking tools (Preqin, Allocator Hub). Clarus focuses on extracting and citing primary manager documents to justify marks.
• Addepar: Portfolio aggregation and reporting for wealth managers, family offices, and OCIOs (Addepar). Overlaps on private‑asset reporting but not on one‑off VDR ingestion and automated, source‑cited reconciliation.