CASE STUDY
Creating fundraising transparency with Sales Excellence and a streamlined operating model
35%
reduction in CRM operational costs by switching client-facing tools and rebuilding Salesforce.
3x
increase in measured activity levels in CRM post go-live, reflecting strong adoption.
14
weeks from discovery to implementation, with new processes introduced.
Urban Partners’ situation & challenges
Founded in the Nordics in 2005, Urban Partners is a leading Northern European private investment company dedicated to solving urban challenges through real estate, credit, and technology. With a focus on structural needs in housing, logistics, and climate, Urban Partners has grown to €23bn in AUM and completed 550+ investments - delivering attractive returns while fostering healthier neighbourhoods and decarbonising the built environment.
Private markets have grown increasingly competitive. Global capital raised has declined for a third year in a row to levels last seen nearly a decade ago*. Despite this, Urban Partners maintained ambitious growth targets with confidence in its sector expertise and complementary product offering.
Within fundraising, the Investor Relations teams faced two compounding pressures:
A cluttered and costly CRM setup that did not fit current ways of working.
Increasing investor expectations and more selective capital allocation that favours managers demonstrating both commercial and operational excellence.
To address challenges while keeping focus on fundraising activities, they partnered with NORTH to transform how the team operates.
*State of Private Capital Fundraising in 2025, Preqin
“North was instrumental in helping us frame, plan, and drive a transformation of how we operate to serve our clients better. The team provided structure and focus, sparring and challenging perspectives, and ultimately energy that helped us start in the best possible way. We also highly appreciated the team on a human level and having them in our offices.”
— Kristoffer Thygesen, Deputy Head of Capital Formation, Urban Partners
Solution
Phase 0: Discovery
NORTH began by analysing the commercial operating model and its CRM enablement to identify opportunities for improvement. This diagnostic surfaced opportunities across process design, drumbeat definitions, account classification, performance management, and a revamp of the existing CRM solution – resulting in a sequenced roadmap spanning two phases, targeting delivery within 10 weeks.
Phase 1: Laying the foundation
NORTH supported in optimising internal processes towards targeted stakeholder engagement and established clear accountability across the Investor Relations teams, leading to more efficient and higher quality operations. Commercial drumbeats across the organisation were redesigned to enable higher frequency and leaner participation, improving transparency and ensuring stronger activity follow-through.
On the technology side, manual CRM activity import was replaced with automatic activity logging. This provided real-time visibility into client engagement across the teams while moving them from a multi-click to a zero-click solution. Shortly after, automated management fee calculation was introduced to strengthen revenue forecasting from the opportunity pipeline.
Phase 2: Developing account excellence and executing system migration
NORTH enabled Urban Partners to effectively prioritise investors by establishing an account tiering framework and support differentiated account planning. Moreover, the event and roadshow preparation process was streamlined, with improved invitation management increasing efficiency, consistency, and traceability.
In parallel, the existing third-party Salesforce solution was retired: emails and meetings were captured automatically, client-facing tools were replaced with another vendor, and a tailored Salesforce data model was built to support fund-related opportunity tracking. This led to Urban Partners saving 35% in operational expenses compared to their previous solution.
Over an intense 14-week period, NORTH worked with Urban Partners to redesign the commercial operating model and implement the necessary CRM changes. The result is an operating model built for scale - one that positions Urban Partners strongly for the future and enables them to reach their high ambitions. NORTH continues to serve as a strategic partner for Urban Partners.
