 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Private credit [1] |
| Founded | 2000 |
| Founder | Robert F. Smith [2] |
| Headquarters | , US |
Number of locations | 5 |
Key people | David Breach (president) |
| AUM | US$100.1 billion (2025) [3] |
Number of employees | 700 (2025) [4] |
| Website | vistaequitypartners |
Vista Equity Partners Management, LLC (Vista) is an American private equity firm that invests in software businesses [2] and manages over $100 billion in assets. [5]
Founded in 2000 by American businessman Robert F. Smith, [2] Vista Equity Partners opened its first office in San Francisco that same year. [6] In November 2008, it closed a funding round for its first institutional fund, Flagship Fund III, and raised a total of $1.3 billion. [7]
In 2010, Vista closed its First Foundation Fund that targeted middle-market companies. [8] Also in 2010, Brian N. Sheth was promoted to president and awarded the title of co-founder of the firm. He remained in this role until in 2020. [9] [10]
After opening an office in Austin, Texas in 2011, [2] Vista has added several private equity and credit funds to its portfolio; its first credit fund raised $196 million. [11] [12] In 2017, the firm raised $560 million for its first fund to invest in early-stage enterprise software companies. [13]
In September 2019, Vista raised $16 billion for its flagship fund, which was the largest technology-focused fund raised by an independent private equity firm at the time. [14] That same year, Vista started a permanent capital investment fund and took its first company public with Ping Identity. [15] [16]
In October 2020, after being named in a tax evasion case along with investor Robert T. Brockman, [17] [18] Vista CEO Robert F. Smith signed a non-prosecution agreement with the IRS, agreeing to pay $139 million and testify against Brockman. [17] In August 2022, the year after the announcement that its COO David Breach would be its new CEO, [19] it agreed to acquire tax automation software platform maker Avalara for $8.4 billion including debt. [20]
In September 2023, a month after it was reported that it had $100 billion in assets, [21] the company launched Vista Credit Strategic Lending, a company focused on investments in enterprise software, data, and credit. [22] In October, Vista, along with Blackstone acquired Energy Exemplar, an Australian energy software company for approximately $1.6 billion. [23]
In 2025, Vista launched VistaOne, opening direct access to its private equity platform for eligible private investors outside the United States. [24] In June, the firm ranked 20th in Private Equity International's PEI 300 ranking of the largest private equity firms in the world. [25]
In July 2025, two months after agreeing to buy enterprise resource planning provider Acumatica for $2 billion, [26] the company sold its minority stake in Cvent to Blackstone in a deal valued at $1.3 billion. [27] On October 27, Vista closed a deal to acquire a majority stake in the Swiss software company Nexthink, valuing it at US$3 billion. [28]
