Every great product starts with a problem that won't go away. Nagare began in a small family office, drowning in Excel files and waiting for quarterly reports.
In 2023, a single-family office was managing a portfolio of 30 private equity funds—venture capital, growth equity, buyouts, and real estate across multiple currencies. Every quarter, the same ritual:
This wasn't just tedious—it was a strategic problem. An analyst spending 40 hours per quarter on data entry isn't doing strategic work. When the IC asked complex questions about manager evaluation or long-term liquidity, the team couldn't explore them thoughtfully because they were buried in mechanical tasks.
The team realized three things:
Modern language models can extract capital calls, distributions, and NAV from GP statements with 99%+ accuracy—faster and more reliably than any analyst.
Excel is great for ad-hoc analysis, but breaks down for 30+ funds with version control, multi-user collaboration, and reproducibility. Sophisticated portfolios need institutional-grade systems that maintain data integrity and support strategic decision-making.
When evaluating a new manager or planning liquidity, decision-makers need confidence through comprehensive data. "Should we commit to this GP?" "What's our multi-year liquidity position?" "How does currency exposure affect our portfolio?" These strategic questions deserve thoughtful, data-supported answers.
So they built Nagare—initially for themselves. The name comes from the Japanese word for "flow" (流れ), reflecting the philosophy that portfolio intelligence should be continuous, not quarterly.
The first version was rough: custom-built tools that automated document processing and built a permanent data foundation. But it worked. Complex strategic analysis that used to require weeks became accessible for thoughtful exploration.
"In our first IC meeting after deploying Nagare, our investment director asked: 'Should we commit to this emerging manager? How do they compare to our existing relationships?' Instead of saying 'give me a week,' I could explore the question thoroughly right there—performance attribution, concentration impact, liquidity implications. Everyone went quiet. Then someone said: 'We've never had this level of confidence in a decision before.' We explored multiple strategic scenarios with complete data transparency. That depth of analysis used to be impossible with our old Excel-based process."
— Founding team member
Word spread. Other family offices faced the same problems: manual data entry, broken Excel models, frustrated analysts, impatient investment committees. By mid-2024, three other institutions were using early versions of Nagare.
The team realized they weren't just solving their own problem—they were solving an industry-wide problem. So they rebuilt Nagare from the ground up as a production-grade platform:
Today, 20+ family offices and institutional investors use Nagare to manage billions in private market allocations.
The name captures the core philosophy: portfolio intelligence should flow continuously, adapting to new information in real-time.
In Japanese, 流れ (nagare) means "flow" or "stream"—water that moves naturally, finding the path of least resistance. It's a concept from Zen philosophy: don't force things, let them flow.
Traditional portfolio management fights against the flow: quarterly batch updates, manual data entry, rigid Excel models. Nagare works with the flow: continuous updates, automated data extraction, flexible scenario planning.
We're just getting started. The vision is to become the operating system for private market investing:
High-stakes decisions about generational wealth deserve thorough analysis. Your tools should support deep thinking, not rush you to conclusions.
We handle your most sensitive financial data. Security, privacy, and reliability aren't features—they're prerequisites.
Complex problems don't require complex interfaces. The best tools disappear into your workflow.
We're building the future of portfolio management. If you're a family office managing 30+ fund commitments and need institutional-grade tools for strategic decision-making, let's talk.