BlackRock has expanded access to standardized private markets benchmarks across its Aladdin technology platform, integrating data from its roughly $3.2 billion acquisition of Preqin, which closed in March 2025. The move aims to address a persistent challenge for institutional investors and wealth advisors: the lack of consistent, comparable performance data for private equity, credit, and other alternative assets.
The enhanced offering, announced Wednesday, makes reporting-grade indices and customizable peer benchmarks available within a single solution across Preqin Pro, Aladdin, eFront, and Aladdin Wealth. Previously, users had to rely on separate tools and manual reconciliation to compare private market returns. The closed-end fund indices now cover more than 10,000 funds representing upward of $13 trillion in assets, built on daily cash-flow data sourced directly from limited partners.
In addition to fund-level indices, the suite includes asset-level benchmarks and more than 140,000 peer benchmarks. These allow financial advisors and institutional allocators to evaluate manager performance against relevant peers, assess policy targets, and generate investment reports without switching between platforms. BlackRock said the goal is to extend what it calls "institutional-quality benchmarking" into advisory and model-portfolio workflows that have historically lacked such data.
Kunal Khara, BlackRock's global head of Aladdin product, said the integration lets clients connect benchmarking, analysis, and reporting within one system. "Clients can access transparent, customizable peer benchmarks and robust, methodology-driven indices, connect analysis and reporting within a single solution, and incorporate private markets into a whole-portfolio view," Khara said in a statement. The unified approach aims to help investors make more informed decisions across public and private holdings.
The announcement is the latest step in a multiyear integration effort following BlackRock's acquisition of Preqin, which was announced in July 2024 and closed in March 2025. At the time, Preqin served about 48,000 customers from 16 offices, covering private equity, venture capital, hedge funds, infrastructure, and real estate data. BlackRock has since folded Preqin's data into other parts of its technology stack, including eFront and Aladdin.
In February 2025, BlackRock integrated Preqin's private markets data into eFront, allowing institutional clients to manage sourcing, due diligence, and post-investment monitoring within a single system. That was followed in the spring by an expansion of Preqin's private credit data inside Aladdin, adding asset-level benchmarks for closed-end funds, business development companies, and semi-liquid vehicles. Those steps were aimed at giving advisors a consistent way to compare private credit performance.
For financial advisors specifically, the direct benchmarking access gives Aladdin Wealth clients the ability to tap the same peer-comparison data institutional allocators use, rather than relying on internal spreadsheets or third-party research subscriptions. BlackRock also said the benchmark data will be available through API integrations, letting wealth managers and outside platforms build the figures directly into their own client-facing tools without requiring users to log into a separate Preqin interface.
The expansion comes as private allocations grow inside both institutional portfolios and wealth management model portfolios. Advisors are increasingly seeking standardized data to evaluate alternatives, a trend highlighted by industry commentary such as Corastone CEO: Outdated Private Market Infrastructure Hampers Wealth Manager Allocations. BlackRock's move also aligns with broader efforts to bring private markets into retirement plans, as seen in Voya Adds Private Equity, Credit, Real Estate to Advisor Managed Accounts for 401(k) Participants.
By embedding Preqin's data across its platforms, BlackRock aims to reduce the fragmentation that has long plagued private markets benchmarking. Unlike public equities and bonds, where index providers have offered standardized performance measures for decades, private markets data has historically been scattered across disconnected systems. The firm is betting that its integrated solution will become a standard tool for advisors and institutions navigating the growing alternatives landscape.
