Rotem Shacham, Director, PSG
Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of meeting fellow women investors at the With Intelligence Women’s Private Equity Summit. Immersed in the desert scenery of Arizona, it was exhilarating to meet talented general partners, limited partners, lawyers, bankers and other players in the investment ecosystem. During Women’s History Month, the meaningful path women have made in our industry was clear. As was evident, the distance that our industry still must cover.
At a conference focused on a wide range of investment topics, it was a privilege to discuss with industry peers the role of software and technology in investing. On a panel spotlighting software investments, I shared with the audience some of my thoughts on PSG’s perspectives gleaned from our experience investing exclusively in software since our inception.
The attractive opportunity set for investors is continuing to expand as software plays an increasingly vital role across verticals. Having partnered with founders, CEOs and management teams at over 130 software companies in our history, at PSG, we are big believers in software as a catalyst with the potential to transform industries. Software acts as a lever for both top-line growth and bottom-line efficiency.
The future of software investing is as exciting as what we have witnessed so far. We believe new, innovative business models are creating tangible financial value across industries. We see new technologies, such as large language models, machine learning, computer vision, automatic speech recognition and others, being harnessed by the companies, many of whom we invest in, to help generate competitive advantage and commercial success.
I believe AI is the next technology shift that will drive software adoption and investment opportunities, similar to the cloud and mobile transformations of the past 10 years. In addition to investing in AI, we are leveraging AI solutions to help add value to our portfolio companies. At the portfolio company level, we believe the opportunity to create value through AI is two-fold; it can be used to deliver more valuable products, increasing revenue and stickiness, as well as to improve internal operations, reducing costs and improving quality. Our Portfolio Operations team works diligently alongside CEOs and management teams to create bespoke value creation initiatives to address AI-driven opportunities in addition to other levers for growth.
Software is a dynamic sector and there’s no question it will continue to present interesting opportunities.
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The views expressed in the commentary above are the personal views of Rotem Shacham in their individual capacity and do not necessarily reflect the views of PSG Equity L.L.C. or its affiliates (collectively, “PSG”) or any of its or their employees, officers or directors, or the portfolio companies that PSG manages. The views expressed above reflect the personal views of Rotem Shacham as of the date of publication of the above commentary and are subject to change without notice. Neither Rotem Shacham nor PSG undertake any responsibility to advise any reader of the above commentary of any changes in the views expressed above.
The commentary above has been prepared solely for informational purposes. It is being provided merely to provide a framework to assist in the implementation of the reader of the above commentary’s own analysis and views on the topic or topics discussed therein. The commentary above is not intended to, and does not, relate specifically to PSG. Certain information contained therein has been obtained from sources prepared by other parties, which, in certain cases, have not been updated through the date of publication. While such information is believed to be reliable for the purpose used in the commentary above, such information has not been independently verified by PSG and neither Rotem Shacham or PSG assume any responsibility for the accuracy, completeness or fairness of such information.
The commentary above is not, and may not be relied on in any manner as, legal, tax or investment advice or as an offer to sell any securities or a solicitation of an offer to purchase any securities. The commentary above discusses broad market, industry or sector trends, or other general economic, market or political conditions, and should not be construed as research, investment advice or any other investment recommendation. Market and economic conditions in the future may vary. There can be no assurances that any of the trends or conditions described therein will continue or will not reverse. Past events and trends do not imply, predict or guarantee, and are not necessarily indicative of, future events or results.
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