Can a PE firm register its whole portfolio, and future deals, for referral credit?

The short answer: credit follows each introduction, not the fund

Referral credit is earned one operating company at a time. The published rule gives credit to the first valid referrer whose introduction leads to a verified company application within the attribution window. A list of fund holdings sent in advance does not produce an application, so it holds no credit for today's portfolio and cannot reach forward to platforms or add-ons the fund has not bought yet.

What a firm can do is register as a partner and then introduce each eligible company when the timing is right: current holdings now, new acquisitions once they close and fit the baseline. Anything beyond the published rule, including how a firm-level account is set up, is governed by the signed partner agreement and the program terms. If your firm wants a different arrangement, ask for it in writing before relying on it.

How does credit work across a portfolio, case by case?

The rule never changes; what changes is who introduced the company and whether a verified application followed inside the window.

Sold companies have their own page: see whether a PE firm can introduce a company it has already exited. For platforms with several entities, ask SourceX in writing how the group should apply before submitting anything.

Why is credit tied to companies rather than funds?

Because every decision that matters sits with the operating company. Its authorized sponsor (the owner, CEO, CFO or an authorized representative) decides whether to apply, and nothing is binding until that company agrees price and terms and signs. A registration filed by the fund cannot stand in for a separate decision by each portfolio company's sponsor.

Each company also qualifies on its own facts. SourceX checks size, history, data breadth and rights company by company, so a platform with ten years of dispatch and billing records might pass while an add-on that lost its archives in a system migration would not.

The reward follows the same unit. Partners earn 25% of the eligible platform fees SourceX actually collects from the referred company's licensing deals, capped at $100,000 cumulative per referred company. Rewards become payable only after the buyer pays and SourceX receives its fee; a lead, meeting or signed agreement alone does not trigger payment, and no reward is guaranteed. The reward is a share of SourceX's fee and is never deducted from what the portfolio company receives.

How to run portfolio-wide introductions inside a firm

Treat it like any other portfolio program: one owner, one tracker and a standing slot on the quarterly portfolio review agenda.

1. Name one referral owner. Pick one person, for example the operating partner or head of portfolio operations, to own introductions so two colleagues never approach the same CEO separately.
2. Settle the fee question first. Decide whether an individual or the firm registers and how any reward is treated under firm policy. Some LPAs contain management fee offset provisions that reach fees connected to portfolio companies; the guide to management fee offsets and referral fees lists what to check with fund counsel and your chief compliance officer. This is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice.
3. Screen the longest-held companies first. PitchBook reported that the median holding period of US PE-backed companies still in portfolios reached 3.4 years at end-2024, with more than 30% held at least five years (PitchBook). Your team already knows those companies' systems and executives, so start there.
4. Introduce each company on its own. Use one referral link or one referral-form submission per operating company, addressed to that company's sponsor, and keep the date you sent it.
5. Build it into new deals. Add a data-licensing line to the 100-day plan for every new platform and add-on, and introduce after closing once the company fits.
6. Review status each quarter. Mark each company as introduced, applied, paused or not a fit.

The network opportunity finder helps you think through which relationships across the portfolio to start with.

Pre-introduction check for each portfolio company

Run these before you send a link. A single clear no means wait or skip.

• US operating company with 50+ full-time employees at peak (contractors excluded)
• Several years of documented operations, with records spread across many business systems such as email, chat, CRM, finance, support and operations tools
• The company created the records and its customer contracts allow licensing them
• You can reach the owner, CEO, CFO or another authorized representative directly
• No banker, lender or other adviser has already introduced it
• The data is not mainly consumer personal data or protected health information, and has not already been licensed for AI training
• Your firm has cleared how it will treat any reward

What to tell each portfolio CEO

Disclose the firm's interest up front and leave the decision with the company.

Limits and open questions

• The published rule does not describe a blanket, fund-wide or forward-looking registration. If your firm negotiates anything like that, it has to be written into the signed agreement.
• The length of the attribution window and other mechanics are set in the terms; read them rather than assuming.
• A portfolio company sold while its licensing deal is still in progress raises timing questions the published facts do not answer; raise them with SourceX in writing before the sale.

Next step

List the portfolio companies your team can introduce this quarter, starting with the longest-held. Then register as a partner, keep the referral playbook for PE operating partners to hand for the CEO conversations, and send each CEO your referral link so the company can apply at sourcex.si/apply with your credit attached.