Insight Partners vs Vista Equity Partners

Snorkel AI raises $350M Series E, triples valuation to $3.5B

Snorkel AI, a startup providing AI training data and simulated environments, has raised a $350 million Series E round at a $3.5 billion valuation, nearly tripling its previous $1.3 billion valuation from 17 months ago. The round was led by Insight Partners and S32, with participation from existing investors Addition, Lightspeed, Greylock, GV, and Wells Fargo. Snorkel has shifted from data-labeling software to offering complete datasets and reinforcement learning environments. The company reports an annualized revenue run rate of $375 million, an eighteenfold increase over the past year, driven by high demand from AI labs. The funding will support scaling its data-as-a-service offering.

• Snorkel AI raised $350 million in a Series E round.
• The Series E was led by Insight Partners and S32.
• Snorkel AI's valuation is now $3.5 billion, up from $1.3 billion.

AI Agents as Startup Teammates: Disrupt Session Preview

This article previews an upcoming TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 session titled 'Hiring When AI Is a Co-Founder,' featuring Josh Reeves (Gusto), Michelle Johnson (Insight Partners), and John Koelliker (Leland). The session explores how early-stage startups are integrating AI agents into their teams, taking on engineering, support, and operational tasks. The discussion focuses on the decision-making process for founders: what work to delegate to AI versus what should remain with humans, emphasizing judgment, accountability, and culture. The article highlights insights from each speaker, drawing on Gusto's data from 500,000+ companies, Insight Partners' scaling expertise, and Leland's talent platform perspective. It presents AI agents as a new option for startup resourcing, prompting a fundamental rethink of team design and the role of early employees in an AI-native world.

• TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 will host a session called 'Hiring When AI Is a Co-Founder' featuring Gusto, Insight Partners, and Leland.
• Josh Reeves is CEO of Gusto, which supports 500,000+ companies.
• Michelle Johnson is SVP at Insight Partners and previously helped scale Flock Safety to $90M ARR.

Insight Partners' Deven Parekh on Diversification Amid AI Concentration

In an interview at TechCrunch's StrictlyVC event, Insight Partners' co-leader Deven Parekh discussed the firm's diversified investment strategy, contrasting with rivals' heavy concentration in frontier AI labs like OpenAI and Anthropic. Parekh highlighted Insight's $90 billion in assets under management, its approach to early-stage investing, and its recent returns of over $20 billion to LPs. He noted that the firm holds stakes in both OpenAI and Anthropic, seeing them as complementary plays. Parekh also commented on the competitive landscape, losing the Legora deal to General Catalyst, and expressed caution on physical AI. He discussed the upcoming IPOs of Anthropic and OpenAI, the concentration risk in venture funding, and the importance of liquidity. The interview covered Insight's portfolio reviews, its investment in Armis, and its philosophy of letting performance speak rather than being loud on social media.

• Insight Partners manages $90 billion in assets under management.
• Insight Partners has returned over $20 billion to LPs over the past two years.
• Insight Partners owns stakes in OpenAI and Anthropic, viewing them as consumer and enterprise plays respectively.

ASSA ABLOY divests PKI business to Vista Equity Partners

ASSA ABLOY has signed an agreement to sell its PKI business unit, part of HID, to Vista Equity Partners. The unit provides digital trust, identity, authentication, encryption, and certificate management solutions, including PKI SaaS platforms IdenTrust, HydrantID, and ZeroSSL. In 2025, the divested business generated sales of approximately USD 58 million (SEK 570 million) with a strong operating margin. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in Q4 2026. The sale reflects ASSA ABLOY's strategic portfolio management, while Vista Equity Partners, a private equity firm, will take over the business to support its growth.

• ASSA ABLOY signed an agreement to sell its PKI business unit to Vista Equity Partners.
• The PKI business unit includes IdenTrust, HydrantID, and ZeroSSL products.
• The divested business had sales of USD 58 million (approx. SEK 570 million) in 2025.

A Guide to Rethinking Software Pricing for the Agentic AI Era

Vista Equity Partners published a new article on September 30, 2026, discussing software pricing strategies in the age of Agentic AI, alongside other recent insights on AI and enterprise software.

Finastra Launches AI-Powered Repair Recommendations for Payments

Finastra has launched Repair Recommendations, a new AI-powered capability within its AI OperatorAssist solution, designed to streamline payment exception handling for banks. Announced at Sibos 2026 in Miami, the feature identifies payment discrepancies, analyzes root causes, and provides scheme-aware, network-rule-validated recommendations (e.g., Swift, Fedwire, SEPA, UPI, Nexus) to ensure accurate corrections. It aims to reduce manual effort, accelerate onboarding, and enable banks to handle higher payment volumes efficiently. The feature complements Finastra's Global PAYplus and Payments To Go solutions, assisting human decision-making with human-in-the-loop governance. Industry analyst Robin LoGiudice from Datos Insights highlights the operational risks of manual processes and the value of AI-driven guidance. The solution reflects Finastra's commitment to integrating AI across the payment lifecycle.

• Finastra launched Repair Recommendations, an AI-powered feature within AI OperatorAssist.
• The feature was announced at Sibos 2026 in Miami on September 29, 2026.
• Repair Recommendations supports payment schemes including Swift, Fedwire, SEPA, UPI, and Nexus.