To the founders building durable companies.

Vilksa was founded to invest in, and grow, exceptional and durable companies across North America and Europe. We love software, but we invest in companies across all industries. We are not a platform, a studio, or a lender. We are owners who build.

We started the firm now because we believe AI has created an unprecedented opportunity for companies across industries. Products can be developed faster, operations can become more efficient, and customers can be served in new ways. We look for teams that can turn those possibilities into lasting value for their customers and their businesses.

The easy way out no longer works

For twenty years, the standard private-equity playbook for software was simple: raise prices, cut costs, and use every dollar of cash flow to pay down the debt that bought the company. It worked because software was sticky and customers had nowhere to go.

That playbook is over. In the age of AI, a product that stops improving is a product that gets replaced. Customers can switch faster than ever, and new entrants can ship a credible alternative in months. A company that starves its product to service debt isn’t being disciplined. It is quietly selling its future to pay for its past.

What we do instead

We invest in companies and focus on growing them. Not for the next exit window, but for the next decade. Our attention goes to four things:

• Growth. Revenue that compounds because customers want more of the product, not because the invoice went up.
• Excellent products. We are engineers. We study how a business works, we use its products, and we underwrite to what it can become.
• Continuous improvement. How quickly a company improves its products and operations is a leading indicator we believe in. We invest to accelerate it.
• Your customers’ growth. The best companies help their customers succeed. When they grow, the company grows with them.

What we look for

We look for companies with the right dynamics for the age of AI. Concretely, that means companies that deliver lasting value to their customers, with standout products or services and a strong operational foundation to build on. And it means founders and teams who would rather build than cut.

We invest up to $50M per company, through partial or full buyouts and growth capital, and we are comfortable being the first institutional owner. We work from New York and Paris, and we work where our companies are.

How we work

Most investors are built from finance. Vilksa is built from engineering. That changes the conversations we have with you: they are about the product, the operations, the hiring plan, and the customers, not about covenants. We are direct, we answer the phone, and once we have decided to back a company, we stay.

If you are building something that lasts, we would like to meet you.