The rapid ascent in popularity and adoption of private funds in recent years has coincided with increased duties for their respective legal and compliance departments. To stay ahead of those issues, the industry has increasingly turned to regulatory technology (RegTech) to aid in quickly and efficiently performing certain compliance functions. As a sign of RegTech’s value to the industry, the SEC and other regulators have also eagerly adopted the technology to become more proficient and effective at monitoring registered funds and managers. The evolution of RegTech and recent trends in the area were examined in a recent ACA Compliance Group (ACA) program featuring Raj Bakhru, partner and chief innovation officer; Carlo di Florio, partner and global chief services officer; and Dan Campbell, partner. This first article in a two-part series analyzes the evolution of RegTech in the private funds industry; the current and future scope of its adoption; and ways the SEC is using supervisory technology. The second article will describe how fund managers can use RegTech for their compliance efforts, as well as emerging technology in this area that managers can use going forward. For additional commentary from ACA, see our two-part series on the sponsor-led secondary market: “Themes, Issues and Solutions” (Oct. 8, 2019); and “Keys to Success, Process and Compliance” (Oct. 15, 2019).