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We all agree: quarterly valuations are the least favorite part of the PE job. Endless reconciliation of historical financials, tweaking decade-old Excel templates, and somehow doing it all in the middle of board-meeting season.
That’s why I’m paying attention to what Carta is doing with AI. Instead of trying to replace the intellectually stimulating parts of the job—the investing part—Carta’s PE Admin solution uses AI to streamline the back-office grind: fund reporting, valuations, and portfolio data workflows.
Carta was the OG in automating manual cap-table management for the VC world. Now they’re bringing that same discipline to private equity.
If quarterly valuations eat up your team’s time, this free Carta report is worth sharing with your team to reclaim those wasted hours. It breaks down:
- How AI is reshaping fund reporting and portfolio management
- What “agentic AI” actually means for eliminating repetitive tasks
Today I’m featuring a deep dive contributed by Karina Petrunova, a long-time reader with a background in software and tech investing. The analysis was edited and curated by RTC, and we also teamed up to conduct a GLG-style interview with a current car wash rollup operator to capture the ground-level insights, included at the end of this piece.
Let me know what you think! If you all enjoy this format, I’ll look to feature more high-quality guest contributors and collaborate with them.
PE Playbook: Car Washes
State of Play
A whopping 61% of the high-volume express-exterior car wash market is owned by institutional investors. It’s a startling level of consolidation for what was once a mom-and-pop industry… and it begs the question: why is private equity so obsessed with car washes and how did we get here?
PE-Backed Car Wash Platforms
Source: Raymond James
Let’s dive into the good, bad, and ugly of car wash roll-ups: why the space became hot, why it feels crowded, and what the future might hold.