The most interesting buyers in software right now aren’t the tech funds. They’re the value investors — the ones who normally refuse to pay up — quietly walking in as the growth crowd runs out.
In Q1, while tech-native funds dumped software, the value side did the opposite:
• ValueAct, an activist fund not known for chasing growth software, made Toast ($TOST) 6% of its entire portfolio — a 61% jump. The bet: “the operating system for restaurants,” not the next AI darling.
• Alta Fox and Shannon River — both opened brand-new
$TOST stakes (5% and 4% of portfolio).
• Bill Nygren’s Oakmark, a deep-value fund, made
$CRM its #1 holding ( 52%) and added
$ADBE — after a letter titled “Why we’re buying software today.”
• Akre Capital, famous for buying “compounders,” initiated new
$CRM and
$NOW.
Now the kicker. The tech specialists did the exact opposite:
• Atreides (Gavin Baker) exited
$HUBS and
$INTU entirely, dumped most of its
$SNOW.
• Sands Capital nearly exited
$NOW.
• Bridgewater sold
$CRM and
$ADBE to pile into semis.
Read that again. The AI-native funds are fleeing software. The value investors are backing up the truck.
When the people who hate paying up start paying up — that’s usually the bottom whispering.