Vista Equity Partners: A Guide To Investing

Vista Equity Partners is a market-leading investment firm that manages over $100 billion in assets. The company has a strong focus on enterprise software, data, and technology-enabled companies, investing in them through private equity, permanent capital, credit, and public equity strategies. With a network of 85+ market-leading companies, Vista aims to empower organizations and help them grow through technology expertise, operational guidance, and capital for sustainable growth. The company has a responsible investment approach, aiming to create value through collaboration and continuous improvement. Vista's investment approach is characterized by longer investment periods, debt capital provision, and a focus on generating long-term results.

Investment approach

Vista Equity Partners is a market-leading investment firm that empowers enterprise software companies to advance the digital economy. The company has a collaborative network with a shared purpose and an eye on opportunity. Through shared experiences, collective expertise, and continuous learning, Vista builds leading organisations that scale to advance the digital future.

Vista Equity Partners has three main investment strategies: private equity, permanent capital, and credit. The company manages a series of funds that represent over $100 billion in assets under management. They provide financial capital and operational strategies to build better businesses, drive digital innovation, and deliver high and consistent returns to their investors.

Vista Equity Partners has a deep understanding of the enterprise software industry and provides technology expertise, operational guidance, and capital for sustainable growth. They work with organisations at every phase of growth to maximise future opportunities. This includes upper-middle-market and large-cap enterprise software, data, and technology-enabled solutions companies, as well as emerging to lower-middle-market companies.

The company's investment approach is focused on value creation, strengthening core operating principles, and fuelling product innovation. They work with founders and companies to create better businesses with enduring market value. Vista Equity Partners' network of companies represents one of the world's largest enterprise software companies, comprised of industry leaders advancing the digital world.

Enterprise software

The company's ecosystem is a collaborative network with a shared purpose and an eye on opportunity. Vista builds leading organisations by combining shared experiences, collective expertise and continuous learning. The Vista network is believed to possess an unparalleled infrastructure to unlock the full potential of its companies and achieve a bright future.

Vista Equity Partners' investment approach is responsible and value-creating. The company blends its knowledge and financial discipline with an entrepreneurial spirit and engineering mindset. It has experience across enterprise software, translating to greater success for management teams, employees and customers.

The company's three investment strategies are private equity, permanent capital and credit. Its private equity and permanent capital portfolio includes more than 85 enterprise software, data and technology-enabled companies that serve over 500 million users and employ more than 100,000 team members worldwide.

Vista Equity Partners works with companies of all sizes and at various stages of the business lifecycle. Its focus includes:

• Upper middle-market and large-cap enterprise software, data and technology-enabled solutions companies
• Middle-market enterprise software, data and technology-enabled companies
• Emerging to lower middle-market enterprise software, data and technology-enabled companies

The company's portfolio includes a range of enterprise software companies, such as:

• Accelya: A leading global provider of integrated technology platforms, software and services to the travel and transport industry.
• Aderant Holdings, Inc.: A leading provider of business management applications for law firms and professional services organisations.
• Allvue Systems: A leading provider of investment management solutions for fund managers, investors and administrators in the alternative investments industry.
• Aptean, Inc.: A leading global provider of mission-critical, vertical-market enterprise resourcing planning software.
• Cvent: A leading cloud-based provider of event management technology solutions.
• Datto: A leading provider of data protection, IT management software and secure connectivity solutions.
• Duck Creek Technologies: A leading provider of P&C insurance and general insurance technologies built for the cloud.
• Ellucian: A leading provider of cloud-ready technology solutions and services for higher education institutions.
• Integral Ad Science: Measures media quality to verify and optimise the placement of digital ads through fraud, viewability, brand safety and optimisation capabilities.
• ICIMS: A leading provider of software solutions and tools that unify talent acquisition.
• Infoblox, Inc.: The market-leading provider of paid enterprise DDI network automation and DNS security solutions.
• Klarna: A leading global "Buy Now, Pay Later" payments and shopping service provider.
• KnowBe4: Provides the world's largest security awareness training and simulated phishing platform.
• Lone Wolf Real Estate Technologies Inc.: The leading provider of back- and front-office solutions for residential real estate brokers and agents in North America.
• Mediaocean: The mission-critical platform for omnichannel advertising, connecting brands, agencies, media, technology and data.
• MicroEdge, LLC: A leading provider of IT solutions to the grantmaking community.
• Xactly: A company focused on customer success, helping companies prevent churn by identifying at-risk customers.

Private equity

Vista Equity Partners is a market-leading investment firm that manages a series of funds representing over $100 billion of assets under management. The company has a strong focus on private equity, permanent capital, credit, and public equity investment strategies.

Investment Approach

Vista Equity Partners has a responsible investment approach that aims to create value for its firm and portfolio. The company has deep industry knowledge and expertise, providing technology expertise, operational guidance, and capital for sustainable growth. They empower organizations across all industries to stay ahead in the digital economy.

Vista partners with companies of all sizes and at various stages of the business lifecycle. They have a sector-focused approach, investing in enterprise software companies across a broad range of maturity, from emerging and lower middle-market organizations to large-cap enterprises. This adaptable, analytical approach to growth has led to a successful track record.

Ecosystem of Opportunity

The Vista ecosystem is a collaborative network with a shared purpose. Through shared experiences, collective expertise, and continuous learning, Vista builds leading organizations that scale to advance the digital future. Their network of companies represents one of the world's largest enterprise software companies, comprised of industry leaders advancing the digital world.

Investment in Vista Equity Partners

The software-focused firm offers investors a choice of fee and carry options. The specific fund terms and conditions are available on their website, along with insights from Vista's CXO Summit, where their responsible investment approach is discussed in detail.

Permanent capital

Vista Equity Partners offers permanent capital as one of its three investment strategies, alongside private equity and credit. The permanent capital strategy is branded as Perennial and is designed to enable longer-term investment commitments and company ownership compared to other private equity funds.

The strategy builds on Vista's heritage in vertical, mission-critical software providers, with an innovative permanent structure to support long-term value creation and product innovation. This is achieved through partnerships with industry-leading, operationally mature companies.

Vista's permanent capital approach is underpinned by its sector-specific expertise and proven record of success, which allows it to stand out among other investment firms. The company's ecosystem is a collaborative network that provides shared experiences, collective expertise, and continuous learning to help organisations advance their digital future.

The private equity and permanent capital portfolio includes more than 85 enterprise software, data, and technology-enabled companies, serving over 500 million users and employing more than 100,000 people globally.

Credit and public equity

Credit

Vista Credit Partners is Vista’s credit-investing strategy, offering flexible, customised debt and structured equity financing to enterprise software, data and technology-enabled businesses. Vista Credit Partners has broad investing capabilities spanning the private and traded credit markets.

As part of its credit strategy, Vista's FounderDirect offering specialises in direct financing for founder-run enterprise software companies. This includes non-dilutive private capital options directly to non-sponsor-owned businesses.

Vista Credit Strategic Lending is a private, perpetual-life business development company providing investors with access to investment opportunities across the spectrum of enterprise software, data and technology-enabled credit. It primarily focuses on senior secured loans at the top of the capital structure, providing additional downside risk mitigation, particularly during periods of market uncertainty.

Public Equity

Vista Equity Partners also invests in public equity. It manages a series of funds that represent over $100 billion of assets under management.

The company provides financial capital and operational strategies to build better businesses, drive digital innovation, and deliver high and consistent returns to its investors. It engages in longer investment periods that garner a consistent, steady flow of returns.

Vista provides debt capital to enterprise software, data and technology-enabled companies through opportunities in the middle and broadly syndicated markets. It also capitalises on its knowledge of enterprise software to generate long-term results.

Frequently asked questions