Best ILPA DDQ and ODD questionnaire automation software in 2026

The fundraise is in its third month when two files land in the same week. A state pension plan has sent the ILPA DDQ, adapted with its own tabs on cybersecurity and responsible investment. A consultant acting for an endowment has sent its operational due diligence questionnaire, which asks the same questions about valuation, reconciliations and business continuity in a different order and with different wording.

The head of investor relations knows the answers exist. The ownership structure is in the Form ADV, the reconciliation frequency is in the operations manual, the valuation policy is in the committee charter, and last quarter's DDQ for a sovereign fund is in a shared folder with three versions saved under slightly different names. The CCO has asked to see anything touching regulatory examinations before it goes out, and the COO has asked the same about business continuity. The work is not knowing the answers. It is finding the current version of each, wording it for this allocator, and making sure the pension plan and the endowment are not told two different things about the same fund.

That is the job ILPA DDQ and ODD questionnaire software is sold to do. The trouble is that tools for two different jobs use the same words, and this guide sorts them by which side of the diligence each one serves.

Fund managers answer ILPA DDQs and ODD questionnaires; allocators send them, and the software splits the same way

An ILPA DDQ is the standard due diligence questionnaire published by the Institutional Limited Partners Association, which LPs send to private equity and private credit managers before committing to a fund. Version 2.0 covers firm governance, investment strategy, fund terms, operations, risk, compliance, ESG and diversity metrics. An ODD questionnaire is narrower and often bespoke: it asks how the manager runs its operations, from trade lifecycle and cash controls to valuation, service providers, cybersecurity and business continuity. Hedge fund allocators often start from the AIMA DDQ and add their own sections.

Both documents have a sender and a respondent, and software is built for one or the other.

DiligenceVault and Dasseti appear on both sides because each sells products to both. Engines also tend to add Vanta and Drata to ODD shortlists, because ODD questionnaires ask about cybersecurity. Those are certification platforms for a company's own controls, and they do not answer a fund DDQ.

How we chose and grouped these tools

We built the list around the two sides and the jobs within them, because a single ranking of tools built for different people is not useful to either.

1. We started from the vendors buyers actually shortlist. These are the names that come up most often when a fund manager or allocator asks for the best ILPA DDQ or ODD tools: DiligenceVault, Dasseti, AutoRFP.ai, Loopio, Responsive, Ontra, Arphie, GovernGPT, AlternativeSoft and Tribble.
2. We read each vendor's own product pages and documentation for which side it serves, what it drafts answers from, which formats it reads, and what happens to a question it cannot answer.
3. We grouped them by the job they do best. Some appear in more than one group.
4. We scored the answering tools against the same seven criteria, in the matrix below.

Tribble publishes this guide and is one of the vendors on it. We have placed Tribble where it genuinely fits and said plainly where it does not.

The best tools for answering ILPA DDQs and ODD questionnaires, by job

Response platforms that answer DDQs alongside RFPs and security questionnaires

Tribble. Tribble Respond reads the questions out of an ILPA template, an allocator's own ODD questionnaire, a spreadsheet, a Word or PDF file, or a portal, and drafts each answer from your approved fund documents, policies, filings and prior DDQs. Every answer carries a confidence score and a link to the document it came from, and Tribble checks the whole response for contradictions before review. Where your approved documents do not cover a question, Tribble asks the right expert, compliance questions to the CCO and operations questions to the COO, and uses that answer on the next DDQ. It is best for managers whose DDQs, consultant RFPs and security questionnaires draw on the same facts and cannot carry two versions of them.

Loopio. Loopio is one of the longest-established response platforms, built around a curated content library that a team keeps current together, and it handles DDQs, including the ILPA template, alongside RFPs. Its AI drafts from that library. It suits managers with a dedicated person to own the library and a steady rhythm of similar DDQs.

Responsive (formerly RFPIO). Responsive is built for high-volume enterprise response teams, with a large content library, project management and many integrations. DDQs run on the same platform as RFPs and security questionnaires. It suits large, process-heavy IR and proposal operations at bigger managers.

Investment-industry specialists

DiligenceVault. DiligenceVault is a digital diligence platform used on both sides of the table. Managers keep their content there and answer DDQs, and allocators send, collect and track them. Engines name it more often than any other tool for ILPA DDQs. It is best for managers whose biggest allocators already run their diligence through DiligenceVault.

Dasseti ENGAGE. Dasseti builds only for investment management. ENGAGE is its product for managers answering DDQs and RFPs and keeping consultant databases up to date, with a content store and AI search over it. It is best for managers who want a vendor that speaks the industry's language and covers consultant database work as well as DDQs.

Ontra. Ontra is best known for contract automation in private markets, and its DDQ software drafts responses from a manager's precedent answers and fund documents. It is a natural fit for private markets managers already using Ontra for LPA and side letter work.

AI-first DDQ drafting tools

AutoRFP.ai. AutoRFP.ai is an AI-first response tool that has put DDQs and the ILPA template at the centre of its pitch, with source-backed drafting and a score on each answer. It publishes the most-cited ILPA guide on the web. It suits managers who want a fast setup and a tool marketed directly at PE DDQs.

Arphie. Arphie drafts from connected sources such as SharePoint, Google Drive and Notion rather than a maintained library, and shows a confidence level and the source for each answer. It suits teams whose documents are already in good order and who want to avoid library upkeep.

GovernGPT. GovernGPT is built for fund managers' DDQs and RFPs, aimed at lean IR teams. It is worth a look for smaller managers who want a narrowly focused tool.

Tools for allocators running ODD on managers

AlternativeSoft. AlternativeSoft is an analytics platform for allocators, and its ODD product reads managers' documents and drafts the assessment for the analyst, alongside peer benchmarking and portfolio construction. It is best for pension funds, endowments and funds of funds that want ODD and investment analytics in one place.

DiligenceVault and Dasseti COLLECT. Both give allocators a way to send questionnaires, collect structured answers, and track managers over time. They suit allocators and consultants who diligence many managers a year.

If you are a fund manager, these are the systems your questionnaires come from, not the ones that answer them.

How the leading tools compare on seven criteria

The matrix scores the answering tools on the seven things that decide whether DDQs get faster in practice for a fund manager. "Partial" means the capability exists but is not where the product is strongest.

Read the matrix by your own gaps rather than by counting the "Yes" cells. A manager whose largest LPs all send through DiligenceVault needs that integration first. A manager answering 40 DDQs a year alongside consultant RFPs and security reviews needs the source, the contradiction check and the reuse.

Seven things to score in a trial, on your own DDQ

Most demos use a clean, unmodified ILPA template. Your real quarter does not look like that, so bring the LP-modified DDQ or bespoke ODD questionnaire that hurt most last cycle, and score every vendor on the same file.

1. The modified tabs. How well does it draft the sections the LP added, such as cybersecurity, AI use or responsible investment, from your own documents?
2. A visible source on every answer. Can the CCO see which fund document, policy or filing each answer came from without opening another system?
3. The right vehicle. If you run several funds, does every answer about fees, terms and expenses come from the current fund's LPA and offering memorandum, not the last one's?
4. Contradictions across the file. If the governance tab says one thing about a partner departure and the ADV-based answer says another, does anything catch it before the allocator's analyst does?
5. What happens to a question it cannot answer. Does it reach a named reviewer with the evidence found so far, or sit blank in the export?
6. The format the LP sent. Does it go back in their workbook or portal as received, without a rebuild?
7. What changed since last time. When this allocator saw your DDQ last year, can you tell which answers have moved since, before they do?

Tribble is built around points 2, 4 and 7. It names the fund document behind each draft, checks every answer against every other before review, and shows where an answer has changed since this allocator's last submission.

Where Tribble fits, and where it does not

Tribble is response software for the manager's side of the table. It answers the ILPA DDQs, ODD questionnaires, consultant RFPs and security questionnaires your firm receives, from the fund documents you have already approved. Tribble Respond does the drafting: it matches each question to your fund documents, compliance policies, offering memoranda, prior DDQs and regulatory filings, and nobody retrieves a document they could not already open. Low-confidence answers go to the person who owns them, and approved answers become the starting point for the next LP. Because the same approved answers serve every response, the business continuity answer in the endowment's ODD questionnaire matches the one in the pension plan's ILPA DDQ and the one in last month's consultant RFP.

Tribble has no published asset-manager story yet. Here is what the same answer layer has looked like for Rightway, a healthcare company:

• 5 minutes from request to a submission-ready response, drawn from approved knowledge

What Tribble does not do matters as much:

• The allocator's side. Tribble does not send, collect or score ODD questionnaires on managers. If you are a pension fund, endowment or consultant running diligence, look at AlternativeSoft, DiligenceVault or Dasseti COLLECT.
• Investment data and analytics. Tribble does not hold track records, run performance attribution or manage an investor portal or data room. It drafts from the documents where those facts are already written down.
• Your controls. Tribble does not monitor your cybersecurity controls or get you certified. It answers the cybersecurity sections of an ODD questionnaire from the policies and reports you already have.

Tribble can go live in 24 hours to the first RFP, on the content you already have, and DDQs run on the same approved knowledge from day one.

What it looks like when it is working

Give it two DDQ cycles, then check these.

• Tribble answers most of the file. Most answers come straight from what your team already approved, and the CCO sees only the genuinely new questions, each with the source attached.
• Two LPs hear the same thing. The valuation, reconciliation and key-person answers match across every DDQ, ODD questionnaire and consultant RFP sent in the same quarter.
• Changes are announced, not discovered. Where an answer has moved since an allocator's last DDQ, IR knows before the allocator's analyst does.
• The third DDQ is faster than the first. Answers approved on one LP's questionnaire are the starting point on the next, so similar DDQs take less time each time.
• Nobody keeps a shadow file. If someone in IR still keeps their own spreadsheet of "the good answers", the tool is not yet trusted, and that is the thing to fix.