Insight Partners

What it is

Insight Partners is a US venture capital and private equity firm headquartered in New York City, founded in 1995 by Jeff Horing and Jerry Murdock. The firm invests exclusively in software and internet businesses across every stage of the funding cycle, from the earliest institutional round to large-scale growth buyouts. As of December 31, 2025, it manages more than US$90 billion in regulatory assets across thirteen flagship funds and companion vehicles, making it the largest software-focused investment firm by assets under management. Insight operates offices in New York, London, Tel Aviv, and Palo Alto.

History

Horing and Murdock launched Fund I in 1995 with US$24.1 million, positioning Insight as an early software specialist at a time when venture capital treated software as a subsector of technology rather than an investable category of its own. Early portfolio wins included Medidata Solutions, acquired by French software company Dassault Systèmes in 2019 for US$5.8 billion; Mimecast, a UK-based email security company taken private in 2022 by Permira for approximately US$5.8 billion; Cvent, an event management software company; Alteryx; and Shutterstock, which listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2012. Qualtrics, a Utah-based survey software company, was acquired by German company SAP in 2019 for US$8 billion, then taken public again in 2021, before Silver Lake acquired it in 2023 at a US$12.5 billion valuation. In February 2022, Insight closed Fund XII at US$20 billion, more than doubling the size of its previous flagship fund and making it one of the largest single venture-capital raises in US history at the time.

Current state

In January 2025, Insight closed Fund XIII at US$12.5 billion across three vehicles: the flagship fund, a dedicated growth-buyout co-investment vehicle, and Opportunities Fund II, a structured equity vehicle. The close brought total regulatory assets to more than US$90 billion. The US$12.5 billion was below the US$20 billion Fund XII target, a compression the firm and market observers attributed to the broader institutional retreat from private markets following the US Federal Reserve's 2022 interest rate cycle. During 2025, Insight made 64 new investments and recorded more than 25 exits, the most prominent being Alphabet's acquisition of cybersecurity company Wiz in a deal valued at roughly US$32 billion, reported as the largest private technology acquisition in US history; Siemens' acquisition of scientific software company Dotmatics; and the US IPO of digital health company Hinge Health at US$32 per share. The active portfolio numbered more than 550 companies as of early 2026. Insight Onsite, the firm's operational support unit, employs more than 130 professionals who advise portfolio companies on product development, talent acquisition, and business development.

Relationships

Insight co-invests alongside Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and SoftBank Vision Fund in large software rounds, while also competing directly with those firms for growth-stage allocations. Its software-only mandate and New York base distinguish it from the Sand Hill Road incumbents. Insight's dual structure, running conventional venture funds alongside buyout-scale vehicles, lets it back the same company from seed through acquisition, a model that has shaped the pattern of software M&A in enterprise markets. Limited partners include US university endowments, pension funds, and international sovereign wealth funds; the firm does not publicly disclose its LP composition. In December 2025, Insight appointed General Timothy Haugh, USAF (retired), former director of the US National Security Agency, to its Government Advisory Board, signaling a push into US federal technology markets.

What to watch

The Fund XII and Fund XIII vintages were priced during 2020-2022 peak software multiples. Whether Insight can return meaningful distributed capital to limited partners through exits at or above those entry prices is the central question for both funds. Activity in US technology IPOs in 2026 defines the liquidity window: a closed or narrow IPO market forces reliance on strategic acquisitions, as the Wiz deal illustrated. In January 2026, the firm acquired Venn, a quantitative investment analytics tool, from US quantitative trading firm Two Sigma for an undisclosed amount, signaling an intent to build proprietary data infrastructure for portfolio management decisions. The ability to execute buyout-scale acquisitions while competing at the seed stage will test the firm's capacity as the software investment landscape grows more crowded.