Private credit gets called opaque almost every day.
From the outside, that might be true (though I often debate it). The loans are private, and so is the information behind them.
Inside the funds, it’s the opposite problem.
There is often SO MUCH data.
Every borrower reports, usually monthly. Financial statements, compliance certificates, borrowing bases... it’s all written into the loan agreement, so none of it is optional.
Andrew Riess, co-founder of Lumonic (now part of PitchBook), says his direct lending customers collect data “at a level that would shock you.”
The hard part is reading the data.
By Kevin’s count, 60% of the private credit funds Lumonic talks to still do that work in spreadsheets, borrower by borrower, month after month.
Cue AI.
Huge volumes of data and a right answer might be the best fit for AI anywhere in finance.
If it works, the corner of the market everyone calls opaque could end up being one of the best monitored.
I sat down with Kevin Hsu and Andrew co-founders of Lumonic, on the Modern Capital Podcast. Do listen!
A few more things we cover:
Why spreadsheets work until a fund reaches 20 to 40 borrowers
What breaks when a firm builds its own AI workflows and the person who built them leaves
The rise of the private markets CTO, and what separates the role from IT
Why pre-investment is an art and monitoring has a right answer
The two kinds of firms that come to Lumonic, and how to tell which one you areThe two kinds of firms that come to Lumonic, and how to tell which one you are
Their advice to a fund starting today: get the data legible before reaching for AI.
Private credit already gets the data on schedule. The machine that monitors it is still being built.
Listen to the full conversation here, on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
We’ll dig into this topic (and so much more!) at The 2026 Private Markets AI Summit in New York on November 4, where operators will compare notes on getting data ready for AI.
Blackstone, BlackRock, Apollo, Hamilton Lane and 100+ other firms are attending. Attendance is capped.
