Start here
Start here: how an AI holding company works
A five-minute introduction to buying businesses, changing their workflows with AI, and the execution questions that determine whether the idea works.
AI Holding Company Research
Evolution of Private Markets Investing
A field guide to the companies buying established businesses and rebuilding them with AI. Understand the model, read the arguments, and explore the companies putting it into practice.
A once-in-a-generation arbitrage
The margin of profitability is a one-time arbitrage. The new opportunity is a once-in-a-generation arbitrage: expand sales and decrease costs at the same time, so earnings pull away from revenue instead of tracking it.
Old opportunity
Earnings track revenue. The margin of profitability is improved once at purchase and then holds.
New opportunity
Sales expand while costs fall, so earnings compound and the gap keeps widening rather than closing.
Recent reading
- Baldwin's go-private bill hits $21M, and the deal hasn't closed yet
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- Seattle farmworker payroll startup Ganaz acquired as CEO Hannah Freeman steps away
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- CWT, first meeting on the 190 redundancies
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Companies
All companies- General Catalystmulti sectorVenture firm whose Creation strategy incubates and funds AI-led services roll-ups and transformation companies. Its essays and portfolio announcements define much of the category's vocabulary.
- Thrive Holdingsmulti sector · accounting · it servicesPermanent holding company launched by Thrive Capital in April 2025 that builds sector platforms (Current in accounting, Shield in IT services) and counts OpenAI as an equity partner.
- Sequence Holdingsmulti sector · financial services · insuranceNew York holding company that 'refounds' scaled services businesses with its Atlas platform and embedded engineers; agreed a $7.7bn enterprise-value deal for The Baldwin Group and reports early results at BankSouth.
- Long Lakeproperty management · multi sectorOwnership-led services company that has acquired dozens of community-management and residential-services businesses, runs its Nexus platform across them, and agreed to acquire Amex GBT for about $6.3bn.
- EudialegalLegal-services platform (Cicero Technologies, trading as Eudia) backed by General Catalyst's Creation strategy. It acquired Johnson Hana and Out-House, operates an Arizona ABS law firm, and sells 'Enterprise Brain' AI to corporate legal teams.
- Titan MSPit servicesGeneral Catalyst-backed acquirer of managed IT service providers, founded 2024 in New York. Announced $74m of funding and the acquisition of RFA; reports ticket-level automation results.