Episode Details

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

Today’s podcast dives into the world of data and decision-making in private markets. 

We were in the studio with private markets polymath Jeb Altonaga. Jeb is SVP, Head of Business Development in Private Markets at Arcesium, where they have built a financial management data platform aimed at solving the data normalization problem across public and private markets.

Jeb’s multihyphenate background puts him in a position to see the data challenges for GPs and LPs alike from all different angles as Arcesium works to take unstructured data and turn it into structured data and insights to help asset managers run their businesses more efficiently and serve LPs better.

Jeb’s background spans Citadel, where he was Head of Relationship Management & Operations in Asia-Pacific, to being an LP as the COO at Blue Pool, a large family office based in Asia, to running capital formation and as COO at Australian activist investment firm Sandon Capital. He joined Arcesium in August 2025 to spearhead the execution of business strategy and the product roadmap for Arcesium’s software solutions in private markets.

We had such a fascinating discussion given the various vantage points that Jeb has had in private markets. We covered:

• How to think about data normalization and why it matters.
• Where and when transparency makes sense.
• Which asset classes may benefit from less transparency.
• What secondary markets might do to transparency in private markets.
• What a tradable market in private markets could look like.
• The evolution of private credit’s market structure.
• What Jeb would make more efficient about private markets.
• Why it’s important to be a lifelong learner.

Bio

Jeb Altonaga leads business development for Arcesium’s Private Markets segment, drawing on over 25 years in alternative investments, capital formation and funds management. He founded Clearglass Capital Partners, a private capital advisory firm, and previously served as COO at Sandon Capital in Sydney and Partner & COO at Blue Pool Capital (& Pinyin) in Hong Kong and began his buy-side career at Citadel Investment Group in Chicago. Jeb holds an MBA from NYU Stern and has served on the board of Hedge Funds Care Asia.

Thanks, Jeb, for sharing your wisdom, expertise, and passion about public and private markets.

Show Notes

00:00 Welcome to Alt Goes Mainstream

01:25 A Message from Ultimus Fund Solutions

02:22 Jeb’s Career Path and Lessons

04:05 Why Jeb Joined Arcesium

04:40 From Loan Tapes to AI

06:33 Building in Private Markets

07:26 The Missing Middle Layer

08:55 Do GPs and LPs Want Standards

10:38 LPs Must Drive Change

11:33 Family Office Perspective

14:23 AI Adoption for Different Generations

18:11 Private Markets Need a Desktop

21:02 APIs versus SFTP plumbing

23:25 Evergreens and Secondaries Push Transparency

28:49 Secondaries as Portfolio Tool

29:11 Transparency vs Information Edge

29:48 Private Equity Transparency Limits

30:10 Why Private Credit Opens Up

31:48 Market Structure Highway Analogy

33:08 Tech Stitching Private Data

34:14 Golden Source Data Layer

35:19 Arcesium Intelligence Agents

35:39 Front to Back Platform Buildout

36:50 Why Firms Differ on Same Stack

39:27 Tech First Culture as Edge

41:04 Private Credit Marketplace Debate

43:41 Liquidity Mismatch and Gates

46:24 Secondary Trading Tech Readiness

47:37 Security Master Fix and Wrap

A Word from Our Sponsor, Ultimus

This episode of Alt Goes Mainstream is brought to you by Ultim