What is investor relationship management software?

The way you communicate with investors is crucial. Whether they're existing investors, or new ones you're looking to onboard it can be challenging to keep up with the various updates you need to share.

One way to streamline your communication efforts is investor relations software such as a customer relationship manager. With the right one in place, you'll be able to have an overview of who you still need to get in contact with, have access to notes from your previous conversations and figure out what's next.

In this blog, we break down what investor relationship management software is, and share a list of the best CRMs.

Types of investor relationship management software

There are two main types of investor relations (IR) software. One focuses more on the data side of investment and streamlining IR tasks, ensuring efficiency and compliance. The other is built for investor relationships  deepen relationships with investors by providing better insights into their needs and behaviors, facilitating more personalized and effective communications to help with your investor relations strategy.

Key differences between investor relations software vs Investor relations CRM

Investor Relations software is designed to help your investor relations team manage all aspects of their  activities. This type of software typically includes features like:

• Data management: Helps in organizing and storing large volumes of financial data, investor information, market insight and other relevant metrics.
• Communication tools: Includes functionalities for distributing press releases, financial reports, and regulatory filings to ensure timely and consistent communication with the investor community.
• Event management: Facilitates the scheduling and management of earnings calls, investor days, and other IR events.
• Compliance reporting: Assists in ensuring that all disclosures meet regulatory requirements and standards, often integrating tools for real-time reporting and analytics.
  

Investor Relations CRM is a type of IR software with a specific focus on managing relationships and interactions with investors. Its features often include:

• Contact management: Helps to keep track of all investor contacts, including personal details, communication history, and investment profiles.
• Interaction tracking: Records details about every interaction with investors, which can include emails, phone calls, meetings, and presentations.
• Segmentation: Allows IR teams to categorize investors based on various criteria (like type of investor, investment size, location, etc.), enabling targeted communication strategies.
• Investor feedback: Facilitates the collection and management of feedback from investors, which can be critical for improving IR strategies and understanding investor concerns.
• Communication: Helps to automate communication with mail merge and sequences so that you can choose what domain you want to send emails from.

Best CRM for investor relations 2024

Whether you're looking for a CRM that can support multiple business functions, or one that is fully focused on investor relations management, we've got a list of the best ones you need to check out before you make that crucial decision.

1. folk

Best for: multiple business function support and IR relations

folk is an all-in-one CRM that isn't limited to investor relations teams. folk can also support multiple business functions including sales, recruitment, marketing and more. It is highly customizable and has features that will help you streamline your workflow and create a single source of truth.

Key features

• Contact management: Manage all your investor contacts, including personal details, communication history, and investment profiles in a customizable dashboard.
• Contact sync: Merge all your contacts from Microsoft Outlook to Gmail into one platform and benefit from real-time sync so that all updates are automatically refreshed.
• Pipeline management: Expand your network of investors and create multiple pipelines that reflect each stage of the investor relations cycle.  
• Custom fields: Stay organized with custom fields so you can tell at a glance who is from your shareholder base, new potential investors, and the investment teams they're from.
• Mail merge: Stay on top of your investor communication with folk's mail merge feature. It allows you to send email campaigns, and personalize bulk emails with AI support.
• Multiple business function support:  folk isn't limited as a investor CRM. You can use its customer relationship management platform across sales, marketing, recruitment, fundraising and more.
• Automate your workflow with Chrome extensions: folk X is there to help you import search lists from LinkedIn and LinkedIn Sales Navigator. They've also just released a new Chrome extension that exports your LinkedIn comments to turn them into warm leads. Both come free with a basic folk account.

2. Irwin

Best for: Investor data

Irwin is a investor relations and capital markets platform for public companies designed for the needs of modern investor relations teams, providing tools that help manage and enhance interactions with investors. It's more for public companies, investment banks and IR consultancies.

Key features

• Investor targeting:  Comes with an extensive database of institutional, hedge fund, and family office investors.
• Shareholder monitoring: Supports reporting filings, NOBO data, stock surveillance, custom holders, and reporting.
• CRM: Allows you to manage IR activity, IR activity reporting and events, with features such as tear sheets and itenaries.
• Professional services: Supports growth services and insights reporting.

3. Backstop Solutions

Best for: Operations

Backstop Solutions is a CRM designed to enhance the operational efficiency of investment firms by integrating various functions related to investor management.

Key features

• Investment tracking: Enables detailed tracking of investment portfolios, providing insights into performance metrics and historical data to aid in making informed investment decisions.
• Client reporting: Includes tools for generating detailed reports on investment performance, tailored to the needs of institutional investors, fund managers, and advisors.
• Shareholder insights: Provides detailed analysis of changes in the shareholder base, helping companies monitor shareholder activities and adapt their strategies accordingly.
• Surveillance reports: Features a dedicated surveillance expert who delivers weekly reports, offering insights into shareholder changes and potential risks.
  

Conclusion

As companies face increasing scrutiny over their performance and governance standards, the ability to maintain transparent, consistent, and engaging communication with investors is more crucial than ever. Which means on top of understanding investment data, you need to be on top of investor interactions. and relationship nurturing is a crucial aspect of this. Choosing the right CRM software doesn't have to be complicated. With folk, you have features that can hep you manage prospective investors, investor engagement and gauge. investor behavior. It can also support multiple business functions so that your teams can collaborate from a single source of truth. Try folk today, free.

More resources

• Selecting the Best Venture Capital CRM for Your Business in 2023
• The Top CRM for Investor Relations you need to know for 2023

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