Who Owns Professional Services

Name: Who Owns Professional Services
Creator: 60x

Who owns the accounting, law and consulting firms, the AI firms built to take their work, and the investors behind both. 609 linked notes, October 2026.

Notes: 609
Links: 1,993
Sources: 415

Research compiled by 60x from published sources as at 8 October 2026. Every ownership link is marked current, prior, pending or reported, and pending deals are not confirmed closed. Several stake sizes and valuations come from trade press or deal trackers rather than filings, and the theses and open questions are inference. See Confidence and Gaps. Nothing here is investment advice or 60x's view of any firm.

The Research

Ownership of accounting, law and consulting firms, the AI firms built to take their work, and the investors behind both, as of 2026-10-08. 192 organisations, 282 investors, 446 ownership links.

Ways in

Accounting Ownership Map — US, UK and European firms with outside capital (66 in the graph)
Legal Ownership Map — PE, MSOs, ABSs and listed law firms
Consulting and Advisory Ownership Map — carve-outs, PE platforms, IT services take-privates
AI Challengers Map — labs' services ventures, legal AI, AI roll-ups, AI-native software
AI Data and Assurance Map — training data, evaluation, AI security, certification
Same Balance Sheets · Most Active Investors · Secondaries and Flips · Big 4 and MBB Moves
Rules That Gate Ownership · Evidence Index

What the map shows

Audit and legal practice stay professionally owned; everything around them is for sale. Thesis - audit stays partner-owned while everything else is sold
The same investors own incumbents and fund challengers. Thesis - capital is hedged across incumbents and challengers
Labs are buying into services. Thesis - labs are moving down the stack into services
AI roll-ups are a valuation bet. Thesis - AI roll-ups are a bet on re-rating services to software multiples
Assurance is a market before it is a mandate. Thesis - assurance demand is real but regulation lags
Legal is following accounting. Thesis - legal is the next accounting

Open questions

Question - will consolidation be firms buying firms or capital buying the value chain
Question - what happens when the 2021-24 PE vintages need to exit
Question - will regulators tighten independence rules for PE-backed audit firms
Question - will US states open law firm ownership
Question - will clients buy outcomes delivered by several providers
Question - what does AI safety mean for cyber IP law infrastructure and energy work

Caveats: Confidence and Gaps.

Audit Stays, Advisory Sells

Thesis - audit stays partner-owned while everything else is sold

One pattern in four jurisdictions: the licensed practice stays professional, the rest is sold.

Across the US, UK and EU the same pattern repeats: rules keep the licensed audit or legal practice in professional hands, and outside capital buys the tax, advisory and operating company next to it. US Alternative Practice Structure (APS), UK audit-firm control requirement (Companies Act 2006 Sch.10 para 7 and ICAEW Audit Regulations), EU audit ownership rules and the legal MSO (management services organisation) structure are the same idea in four jurisdictions. Crowe, Grant Thornton UK and Rafi Law Group are worked examples. The open risk is independence: see Question - will regulators tighten independence rules for PE-backed audit firms.

Index: Start Here.

US Alternative Practice Structure (APS)

Split the CPA firm in two. Partners keep the audit; PE buys the tax and advisory company.

Split of a CPA firm into a CPA-owned attest firm (audits/reviews) and a separate non-attest company (tax, advisory, back office) that outside investors can own; the attest firm leases staff/infrastructure from the non-attest company under services agreements.

How it works. Pre-closing reorganisation, e.g. Crowe LLP stays licensed attest firm while new Crowe Advisory LLC takes tax/advisory; KKR invests directly into the Advisory LLC and with co-investors holds majority; partners keep a minority (Jun 2026). Independence analysis turns on investor 'significant influence' vs 'control' over the non-attest entity.

Origin. AICPA Code of Professional Conduct: APS interpretation under the Form of Organization and Name Rule plus independence interpretations; used for decades (H&R Block/American Express era). PEEC exposure draft voted 19 Dec 2025, comments closed 30 Apr 2026, effective one year after adoption.

Weaknesses. Investor affiliates/portfolio companies can impair independence; network-firm definition being widened; shared services fees and interlocking governance seen as channels of indirect influence. Final adoption status of the ED after Apr 2026 NOT verified.

Second research pass: Splits a CPA firm into a partner-owned attest entity and a PE-owned advisory/tax entity

How it works. PE buys majority of the advisory LLC; partners receive cash plus rolled equity and retire legacy pension obligations; the attest partnership contracts services from the advisory entity.

Origin. US mid-tier accounting firms 2021+ (Citrin Cooperman/New Mountain 2022, Baker Tilly/H&F 2024, Grant Thornton/New Mountain 2024); UK Grant Thornton/Cinven 2024

Weaknesses. Audit independence 'grey areas'; regulator scrutiny; short-term return pressure; partner/staff cultural friction.

Where it shows up

Baker Tilly, CBIZ, Grant Thornton, Crowe, EisnerAmper, CohnReznick, Citrin Cooperman, Cherry Bekaert, Eide Bailly, Armanino, Aprio, Wipfli, Carr Riggs and Ingram, Ascend, PKF O'Connor Davies, UHY, Sikich, Current (Crete Professionals Alliance), Doeren Mayhew, Cohen and Co, Platform Accounting Group, Frazier and Deeter, Schellman, Elliott Davis, Sorren, HBK, Richey May, Springline Advisory, Your Part-Time Controller, Sax, Smith and Howard, Archer Lewis, Nichols Cauley, Prosperity Partners.

Index: Rules That Gate Ownership.

Sources

Crowe

KKR's 2026 deal: control of Crowe Advisory at a reported $3bn, with Crowe LLP still CPA-owned.

US accounting firm, #12 in Accounting Today's 2026 Top 100 (FY2025 revenue $1,400M).

Valuation / size: US revenue ~$1.28bn

Part of the Accounting Ownership Map. Owned or backed by KKR.

Mechanisms it illustrates: US Alternative Practice Structure (APS).

Ownership and investors

Investor	Year	Role	Status	Source
KKR	2026	majority/control of Crowe Advisory LLC (announced Jun 11 2026, closed Aug 7 2026); WSJ-reported valuation ~ $3B	current	source

Notes

Crowe LLP remains CPA-owned attest firm. Partners retain minority.

Reference: big 2026 APS deal

Included as structural reference.

Size: US revenue ~$1.28bn

Sources

UK audit-firm control requirement (Companies Act 2006 Sch.10 para 7 and ICAEW Audit Regulations)

Qualified auditors must hold the votes. Economic interest can still sit with the fund.

A statutory audit firm must be 'controlled by qualified persons': majority of members, and majority of management body, must be qualified; majority measured by voting rights on all or substantially all matters, or rights to direct overall policy/alter the constitution.

How it works. PE deals therefore carve out the audit entity (e.g. Grant Thornton UK separated audit from advisory & tax) so that qualified auditors keep majority voting control; ICAEW Audit Regulations amended (effective 1 Oct 2024, compliance by 1 Apr 2025) so policy and constitutional decisions, and any higher-threshold approvals, must be controlled by qualified persons.

Origin. Companies Act 2006 Schedule 10; EU Statutory Audit Directive Art.3 heritage; ICAEW as RSB; FRC as competent authority.

Weaknesses. Economic interest can sit with PE while voting control sits with auditors; interlocking boards and management service fees flagged as indirect-influence routes.

Where it shows up

Grant Thornton UK, Azets, Cooper Parry, S and W, Moore Kingston Smith, Sumer, AAB, Unity Advisory.

Index: Rules That Gate Ownership.

Sources

Grant Thornton UK

The largest UK accountancy PE deal: Cinven takes about 60 percent at a reported £1.5bn.

Mid-tier audit, tax and advisory firm; largest UK accountancy PE deal to date

Valuation / size: No.7 in Accountancy Age Top 50+50 2024 (fee income £654m, 2023); £787m revenue latest year; rolling 12m to June 2026 >£800m; described as UK's sixth-largest

Part of the Accounting Ownership Map. Owned or backed by Cinven.

Mechanisms it illustrates: UK audit-firm control requirement (Companies Act 2006 Sch.10 para 7 and ICAEW Audit Regulations).

Ownership and investors

Investor	Year	Role	Status	Source
Cinven	2024	Majority (~60%) stake; announced 16 Dec 2024, completed early 2025 (Q1)	current	source

Notes

Partners voted unanimously; partnership 'ethos' retained; equity held back for future partners; Employee Benefit Trust for staff below partner. Reported valuation ~£1.5bn (Irish Times: 60% stake valued firm at ~£1.5bn; PE Insights 'up to £1.5bn'). Companies House accounts show audit arm separated from advisory and tax arm; ~~208 equity partners shared a one-off £35.2m payout (~~£160k each); 2024 PEP £682k pre-deal. CEO says firm won't audit Cinven portfolio companies; FRC reviewed deal. Linklaters says Cinven outbid a rival US merger proposal. Target £1bn revenue by end 2027 and 160 new partners.

Size: No.7 in Accountancy Age Top 50+50 2024 (fee income £654m, 2023); £787m revenue latest year; rolling 12m to June 2026 >£800m; described as UK's sixth-largest

UK's 6th largest accountant; advisory-heavy

First major UK PE deal in a top-10 accountant; partners remain significant shareholders. Revenue >£800m rolling 12m to Jun 2026, target £1bn by end-2027. Critics cite audit-independence risk.

Sources

Partner economics in PE deals

Cash and rolled equity now, lower pay later. Grant Thornton UK partners got about £160k each.

Partners sell part of future profits/equity for an upfront payment plus rolled equity; salaried compensation reset below historical profit share to create EBITDA.

How it works. Evidence found: GT UK ~~208 equity partners got a one-off £35.2m (~~£160k each, ~23% of take-home) vs 2024 PEP £682k; equity held back for future partners; EBT for staff. Management reinvestment in Dains. Bishop Fleming chose minority deal to stay partner-majority.

Origin. Deal practice.

Weaknesses. The often-cited 20-30% compensation haircut, 3-7 year holds and 10-15x EBITDA multiples were NOT verified with primary sources this session (search budget exhausted). KPMG CF gives only public comps ~14.5x LTM EBITDA for consulting.

Index: Rules That Gate Ownership.

Sources

Secondary buyouts and continuation vehicles ('flip era')

First-round owners sell to bigger funds, or reach for continuation vehicles when bids disappoint.

First-generation PE owners sell accounting platforms to bigger PE funds, or roll them into continuation funds when exit valuations disappoint.

How it works. UK flips: Cooper Parry Waterland->Lee Equity (2024); Dains Horizon->IK (2024); AAB August Equity->Goldman Sachs Alternatives (2025); Shaw Gibbs Apiary->ECI (2026). US: Citrin Cooperman New Mountain->Blackstone (Jan 2025). Sumer: Penta paused ~£1bn sale (May 2026) and is weighing a continuation fund, minority co-investor or dividend recap.

Origin. PE market practice.

Weaknesses. Valuations described as 'ludicrously high' 12 months earlier; AI uncertainty over future cash flows.

Where it shows up

Citrin Cooperman, EisnerAmper, Schellman, Smith and Howard, Prosperity Partners, Richey May, Fletchers, Interpath Advisory, Sumer, Cooper Parry, Dains, Shaw Gibbs, AAB.

Index: Rules That Gate Ownership.

Sources

Citrin Cooperman

The first US accounting flip: New Mountain to Blackstone, reportedly 15x EBITDA against 11x in.

US accounting firm, #16 in Accounting Today's 2026 Top 100 (FY2025 revenue $985M).

Part of the Accounting Ownership Map. Owned or backed by Blackstone. Earlier backers: New Mountain Capital. That change of hands makes it one of the Secondaries and Flips. Of these, Blackstone also hold positions on the other side of the incumbent / AI divide — see Same Balance Sheets.

Mechanisms it illustrates: US Alternative Practice Structure (APS), Secondary buyouts and continuation vehicles ('flip era').

Ownership and investors

Investor	Year	Role	Status	Source
New Mountain Capital	2021	majority (announced Oct 2021, closed 2022); exited Jan 2025	prior	source
Blackstone	2025	PE-to-PE secondary (announced Jan 7 2025); reported ~15x EBITDA vs 11x entry; ~US$2B reported	current	source

Notes

First US accounting PE flip. Sources conflict on control: Accounting Today/JofA describe majority; one tracker says Blackstone's direct stake <50%. Add-ons: ORBA (Sep 2025), Gatto Pope & Walwick (Nov 2025).

Sources

Labs Move Into Services

Thesis - labs are moving down the stack into services

Both frontier labs now own or co-own a services business, with consultancies as minority holders.

Both frontier labs now own or co-own services businesses: OpenAI controls DeployCo (buying Tomoro), and Anthropic co-founded Ode (built on Fractional AI); OpenAI also holds a stake in Thrive Holdings. This is the Forward-deployed engineering (FDE) model applied at scale, with consultancies (McKinsey and Company, Bain and Company, Capgemini) taking minority equity rather than leading. See Big 4 and MBB alliances with AI labs.

Index: Start Here.

OpenAI

Parent of DeployCo and a shareholder in Thrive Holdings, the AI roll-up vehicle.

Frontier AI lab (ChatGPT, GPT models, Frontier enterprise agent platform). Parent of DeployCo.

Valuation / size: $852bn post-money (closed). Reportedly seeking >=$30bn at ~$1.4tn (Bloomberg, 30 Sep 2026 - in talks, NOT closed). IPO postponed beyond 2026 per reports. (as of 2026-03-31)

Part of the AI Challengers Map. Owned or backed by Amazon, Nvidia, SoftBank, Microsoft, Thrive Capital, Andreessen Horowitz (reported), DE Shaw (reported), MGX (reported), TPG (reported), T Rowe Price (reported), Sequoia Capital (reported), BlackRock (reported), Blackstone (reported), Fidelity (reported). Of these, Blackstone, TPG, Thrive Capital also hold positions on the other side of the incumbent / AI divide — see Same Balance Sheets.

It is itself an owner, investor or acquirer in DeployCo, Thrive Holdings.

Mechanisms it illustrates: Labs moving into services (DeployCo, Ode), Big 4 and MBB alliances with AI labs.

Ownership and investors

Investor	Year	Role	Status	Source
Amazon	2026	$50bn anchor in $122bn round (reported)	current	source
Nvidia	2026	$30bn in $122bn round (reported)	current	source
SoftBank	2026	$30bn in 2026 round; led 2025 $40bn round	current	source
Microsoft	2023	~$13bn strategic 2019-23; in 2026 round	current	source
Thrive Capital	2024	Led Oct 2024 $6.6bn round (~$1.3bn reported)	current	—
Andreessen Horowitz	2026	2026 round syndicate (secondary-source listing)	reported	source
DE Shaw	2026	2026 round syndicate (secondary-source listing)	reported	source
MGX	2026	2026 round syndicate (secondary-source listing)	reported	source
TPG	2026	2026 round syndicate (secondary-source listing)	reported	source
T Rowe Price	2026	2026 round syndicate (secondary-source listing)	reported	source
Sequoia Capital	2026	2026 round syndicate (secondary-source listing)	reported	source
BlackRock	2026	2026 round syndicate (secondary-source listing)	reported	source
Blackstone	2026	2026 round syndicate (secondary-source listing)	reported	source
Fidelity	2026	2026 round syndicate (secondary-source listing)	reported	source

Holdings and acquisitions

Company	Year	Role	Status	Source
DeployCo	2026	Majority owner and controller	current	source
Thrive Holdings	2025	ownership stake (terms undisclosed); OpenAI engineering/research/product staff embedded in portfolio cos; stake grows if portfolio succeeds	current	source

Alliances (no equity)

Partner	Nature	Source
McKinsey and Company	Frontier Alliance partner (Feb 2026)	source
BCG	Frontier Alliance partner (Feb 2026)	source
Accenture	Frontier Alliance partner (Feb 2026)	source
Capgemini	Frontier Alliance partner (Feb 2026)	source
Bain and Company	Global services alliance since Feb 2023 (Coca-Cola first client)	source
PwC	First reseller of ChatGPT Enterprise (2024)	source

See Big 4 and MBB alliances with AI labs.

Notes

Per-investor amounts for the March 2026 round come from press reporting, not OpenAI's post. Lead for 2026 round inconsistently described (Amazon anchor; a16z sometimes called co-lead). Earlier Microsoft URL and 2024/2025 OpenAI URLs are from background knowledge, not re-fetched in this research pass.

Total raised: Approx. $180bn+ cumulative equity (approximate, approximate aggregation: ~$13bn Microsoft 2019-23, $6.6bn Oct 2024, $40bn Mar 2025, $122bn Mar 2026). UNCERTAIN - not from a single source.

Sources

DeployCo

OpenAI's deployment arm, launched May 2026 at about $14bn post-money with 19 partner firms.

OpenAI's forward-deployed-engineering / enterprise AI deployment services business, launched 11 May 2026. Standalone unit 'operating as an extension of OpenAI', majority-owned and controlled by OpenAI, in partnership with 19 firms. Agreed to acquire Tomoro (UK applied-AI consultancy, ~150 FDEs; clients incl. Tesco, Virgin Atlantic, Supercell).

Valuation / size: $10bn pre-money / ~$14bn post-money (as of 2026-05-11)

Part of the AI Challengers Map. Owned or backed by TPG, Advent International, Bain Capital, Brookfield, B Capital, BBVA, Emergence Capital, Goanna, Goldman Sachs, SoftBank, Warburg Pincus, WCAS, McKinsey and Company, Bain and Company and others below. Of these, Bain Capital, Goldman Sachs, TPG, Warburg Pincus also hold positions on the other side of the incumbent / AI divide — see Same Balance Sheets.

It is itself an owner, investor or acquirer in Tomoro.

Mechanisms it illustrates: Forward-deployed engineering (FDE), Labs moving into services (DeployCo, Ode), Outcome-based pricing.

Ownership and investors

Investor	Year	Role	Status	Source
TPG	2026	Founding capital, lead / co-lead founding partner	current	source
Advent International	2026	Founding capital, lead / co-lead founding partner	current	source
Bain Capital	2026	Founding capital, lead / co-lead founding partner	current	source
Brookfield	2026	Founding capital, lead / co-lead founding partner	current	source
B Capital	2026	Founding partner	current	source
BBVA	2026	Founding partner	current	source
Emergence Capital	2026	Founding partner	current	source
Goanna	2026	Founding partner	current	source
Goldman Sachs	2026	Founding partner	current	source
SoftBank	2026	Founding partner	current	source
Warburg Pincus	2026	Founding partner	current	source
WCAS	2026	Founding partner	current	source
McKinsey and Company	2026	Minority investor (consultancy)	current	source
Bain and Company	2026	Minority investor (consultancy)	current	source
Capgemini	2026	Minority investor (consultancy)	current	source
OpenAI	2026	Majority owner and controller	current	source

Holdings and acquisitions

Company	Year	Role	Status	Source
Tomoro	2026	Acquisition agreed (subject to regulatory approval)	pending	source

Notes

Valuation and investor terms (reported guaranteed minimum 17.5% return, capped profits) come from Axios, not OpenAI's release. 'DeployCo' is the name in OpenAI's page metadata/press; formal name is 'The OpenAI Deployment Company'. No CEO named in release.

Total raised: More than $4bn initial investment (OpenAI release); 19 investors

OpenAI business unit (announced May 11-12 2026), majority-owned and controlled by OpenAI, embedding Forward Deployed Engineers in customers: diagnostic, then build/test/deploy production systems. Capital to scale and acquire firms.

Partners collectively sponsor 2,000+ businesses - a captive PE-portfolio channel. No CEO named in coverage found.

Acquired: Tomoro (pending, ~150 FDEs) (2026) (source)

Sources

Tomoro

An Edinburgh consultancy of about 150 forward-deployed engineers, being bought by DeployCo.

UK applied-AI consultancy (Edinburgh/London, ~150 forward-deployed engineers; clients incl. Tesco, Virgin Atlantic, Supercell).

Valuation / size: Deal price not disclosed

Part of the AI Challengers Map. Owned or backed by DeployCo (pending).

Mechanisms it illustrates: Forward-deployed engineering (FDE).

Ownership and investors

Investor	Year	Role	Status	Source
DeployCo	2026	Acquisition agreed (subject to regulatory approval)	pending	source

Notes

Edinburgh/London applied-AI consulting and engineering firm founded 2023; ~150 forward-deployed engineers and deployment specialists; clients Tesco, Virgin Atlantic, Supercell. Being acquired by OpenAI DeployCo.

Closing expected 'in the coming months' from May 2026; completion not verified.

Sources

Anthropic

Founding partner in Ode, and the lab that pays Accenture's Faculty to evaluate it from inside.

Frontier AI lab (Claude). Founding partner in Ode.

Valuation / size: $965bn post-money (Series H, $65bn). IPO reportedly being prepared (confidential S-1 reported; Bloomberg/CoinDesk say listing expected ~November 2026 at potentially >$2tn) - UNCONFIRMED. (as of 2026-05-28)

Part of the AI Challengers Map. Owned or backed by Altimeter, Dragoneer, Greenoaks, Sequoia Capital, Capital Group, Coatue, D1 Capital, Baillie Gifford, Blackstone, Brookfield, DE Shaw, DST Global, Fidelity, Samsung and others below. Of these, Blackstone also hold positions on the other side of the incumbent / AI divide — see Same Balance Sheets.

It is itself an owner, investor or acquirer in Ode.

Mechanisms it illustrates: Labs moving into services (DeployCo, Ode), Embedded evaluation inside a lab, Big 4 and MBB alliances with AI labs.

Ownership and investors

Investor	Year	Role	Status	Source
Altimeter	2026	Series H co-lead ($65bn at $965bn)	current	source
Dragoneer	2026	Series H co-lead ($65bn at $965bn)	current	source
Greenoaks	2026	Series H co-lead ($65bn at $965bn)	current	source
Sequoia Capital	2026	Series H co-lead ($65bn at $965bn)	current	source
Capital Group	2026	Series H co-lead ($65bn at $965bn)	current	source
Coatue	2026	Series H co-lead ($65bn at $965bn)	current	source
D1 Capital	2026	Series H co-lead ($65bn at $965bn)	current	source
Baillie Gifford	2026	Series H participant	current	source
Blackstone	2026	Series H participant	current	source
Brookfield	2026	Series H participant	current	source
DE Shaw	2026	Series H participant	current	source
DST Global	2026	Series H participant	current	source
Fidelity	2026	Series H participant	current	source
Samsung	2026	Series H participant	current	source
SK Hynix	2026	Series H participant	current	source
Micron	2026	Series H participant	current	source
Amazon	2026	$8bn strategic 2023-24, plus $5bn in Series H	current	source
GIC	2026	Series G co-lead ($30bn at $380bn)	current	—
ICONIQ	2025	Series F lead ($13bn at $183bn)	current	—
Lightspeed Venture Partners	2025	Series F co-lead	current	—
Google	2025	Strategic investor, ~$3bn+ (reported)	current	—

Holdings and acquisitions

Company	Year	Role	Status	Source
Ode	2026	Founding partner ($300m reported)	current	source

Alliances (no equity)

Partner	Nature	Source
Deloitte	Claude rolled out to ~470,000 staff (2025)	source
Accenture	Anthropic Business Group (Dec 2025); Faculty embedded evaluation (Sep 2026)	source
PwC	Alliance expansion, 30,000 US staff certified (May 2026)	source
KPMG	Global alliance, Claude to ~276,000 staff (May 2026)	source

See Big 4 and MBB alliances with AI labs.

Notes

Series G/F, Amazon and Google URLs are from background knowledge, not re-fetched this research pass; treat exact slugs as unverified. No MBB alliance with Anthropic found comparable to OpenAI's Frontier Alliance. EY alliance not found.

Total raised: Approx. $130bn+ cumulative (approximate aggregation: Series F $13bn Sep 2025, Series G $30bn Feb 2026, Series H $65bn May 2026, plus ~$8bn Amazon and several $bn Google earlier, Microsoft/Nvidia commitments Nov 2025). UNCERTAIN.

Sources

https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/28/anthropic-raises-65-billion-nears-1t-valuation-ahead-of-ipo/

Ode

Anthropic, Blackstone, H&F and Goldman's services firm, about $1.5bn of committed capital.

Enterprise AI implementation/services firm ('scaled boutique') building custom AI systems, 'Claude-first' but model-agnostic where needed. Announced unnamed 4 May 2026; named 'Ode with Anthropic' and officially launched 15 July 2026. Built on Fractional AI (acquired May 2026); CEO Chris Taylor, CTO Eddie Siegel (Fractional co-founders); ~100 engineers at launch. Website ode.com.

Valuation / size: Not disclosed. ~$1.5bn is committed capital (WSJ via Fortune); TechCrunch (May 4) loosely labels $1.5bn a 'valuation' - treat as capital, not valuation. (as of 2026-05-04)

Part of the AI Challengers Map. Owned or backed by Anthropic, Blackstone, Hellman and Friedman, Goldman Sachs, General Atlantic, Leonard Green, Apollo Global Management, GIC, Sequoia Capital, Apollo. Of these, Blackstone, General Atlantic, Goldman Sachs, Hellman and Friedman also hold positions on the other side of the incumbent / AI divide — see Same Balance Sheets.

It is itself an owner, investor or acquirer in Fractional AI.

Mechanisms it illustrates: Forward-deployed engineering (FDE), Labs moving into services (DeployCo, Ode).

Ownership and investors

Investor	Year	Role	Status	Source
Anthropic	2026	Founding partner ($300m reported)	current	source
Blackstone	2026	Founding partner ($300m reported; conceived the venture)	current	source
Hellman and Friedman	2026	Founding partner ($300m reported)	current	source
Goldman Sachs	2026	Founding partner (amount unconfirmed)	current	source
General Atlantic	2026	Consortium backer	current	source
Leonard Green	2026	Consortium backer	current	source
Apollo Global Management	2026	Consortium backer	current	source
GIC	2026	Consortium backer	current	source
Sequoia Capital	2026	Consortium backer	current	source
Apollo	2026	consortium members	current	source

Holdings and acquisitions

Company	Year	Role	Status	Source
Fractional AI	2026	Acquired; forms Ode's core	current	source

Notes

No consultancy (MBB/Big 4) investors found - unlike DeployCo, Ode's backers are PE/financial. TechCrunch frames Deloitte and Accenture as competitors.

Total raised: ~$1.5bn committed capital (WSJ, via Fortune/TechCrunch). Reported $300m each from Anthropic, Blackstone, H&F (TechCrunch citing WSJ); Goldman amount not confirmed (some reports ~$150m - unverified).

Standalone enterprise AI implementation firm announced May 4 2026 by Anthropic, Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman (with Goldman Sachs); built on acquired Fractional AI (May 21 2026); named/branded Ode July 15 2026. 'Claude-first' special-forces model of senior engineers; ~100 engineers; targets mid-size firms in financial services, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, software; PE sponsors refer portfolio cos.

CEO Chris Taylor, CTO Eddie Siegel (Fractional co-founders). Fractional ended an 11-month OpenAI partnership when acquired. PointClickCare partnership Aug 13 2026.

Acquired: Fractional AI (2026) (source)

Sources

Fractional AI

The engineering firm bought in May 2026 to become Ode's core. Its founders now run Ode.

US AI engineering firm acquired in May 2026 to form the operational core of Ode; co-founders Chris Taylor and Eddie Siegel became Ode's CEO and CTO.

Valuation / size: Acquisition price undisclosed

Part of the AI Challengers Map. Owned or backed by Ode.

Mechanisms it illustrates: Forward-deployed engineering (FDE).

Ownership and investors

Investor	Year	Role	Status	Source
Ode	2026	Acquired; forms Ode's core	current	source

Notes

Applied AI services/engineering firm; acquired May 2026 to become Ode's operating core.

Sources

Forward-deployed engineering (FDE)

Palantir's model of engineers at the client: deep integration, consultancy margins.

Engineers embedded at the customer who configure a platform to the customer's hardest problems and feed learnings back to product.

How it works. Palantir split 'Devs' (build one capability for many customers) vs 'Deltas'/FDSEs (deliver many capabilities for one customer). AI startups and labs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Distyl, Tomoro, Fractional) use FDEs to get deep data/workflow integration; a16z argues trade gross margin for moat and optimise gross-profit dollars until becoming the 'system of work'.

Origin. Palantir (FDSE/'Delta' role, 2010s).

Weaknesses. Low gross margins, consultancy-like scaling (headcount-bound), risk of being a disguised services business; a16z notes critics say it signals commodity product; dependence on rare high-agency engineers.

Where it shows up

DeployCo, Ode, Tomoro, Fractional AI, Faculty, Distyl AI, Invisible Technologies.

Index: Rules That Gate Ownership.

Sources

Same Money, Both Sides

Thesis - capital is hedged across incumbents and challengers

If AI shrinks billable hours at a portfolio firm, the same owner's AI bet takes the spend.

The largest owners of incumbent firms are also funding the AI firms built to take their work: see Same Balance Sheets. For a PE owner this is a hedge: if AI compresses billable hours at Baker Tilly or Citrin Cooperman, Ode captures the implementation spend instead. For the firms' partners the incentives diverge from the owners'. Related: Labs moving into services (DeployCo, Ode).

Index: Start Here.

Same Balance Sheets

Eleven investors that hold incumbent firms and the AI firms built to replace them.

Investors that own or back incumbent professional-services firms (accounting, law, consulting) and AI-native challengers or lab services ventures.

Investor	Incumbent-side holdings	AI-side holdings
Apax Partners	CohnReznick, S and W, Thoughtworks, Kin and Carta	Faculty
Bain Capital	Sikich, Guidehouse	DeployCo, Legora
Bessemer Venture Partners	Carr Riggs and Ingram, Current (Crete Professionals Alliance)	Legora, Fieldguide
Blackstone	Citrin Cooperman, Mphasis	Ode, OpenAI †, Anthropic, Norm Ai
General Atlantic	Frazier and Deeter	Ode
Goldman Sachs	Schellman, AAB	DeployCo, Ode, Harvey, Fieldguide
Hellman and Friedman	Baker Tilly	Ode
Hg	Azets	A-LIGN
TPG	Smith and Howard	DeployCo, OpenAI †, Surge AI †
Thrive Capital	Current (Crete Professionals Alliance)	OpenAI, Thrive Holdings, Long Lake, Rogo
Warburg Pincus	Unity Advisory	DeployCo, Surge AI †, A-LIGN

The sharpest cases: Hellman and Friedman and Blackstone co-founded Ode with Anthropic while owning Baker Tilly and Citrin Cooperman; Thrive Capital backs OpenAI and owns an accounting roll-up through Thrive Holdings, in which OpenAI also holds a stake; Goldman Sachs owns Schellman and AAB and sits in DeployCo, Ode, Harvey and Fieldguide. See Thesis - capital is hedged across incumbents and challengers.

Most Active Investors

Who appears most often, and which of them spans accounting, law, consulting and AI at once.

Investors with three or more holdings in this graph.

Investor	Holdings	Segments
General Catalyst	8	AI Data Evaluation and Assurance, AI-Native Challengers
Sequoia Capital	8	AI Data Evaluation and Assurance, AI Labs and Services Ventures, AI-Native Challengers
Blackstone	7	AI Labs and Services Ventures, AI-Native Challengers, Accounting Firms, Consulting Advisory and IT Services, Law and Legal Services
Goldman Sachs	7	AI Labs and Services Ventures, AI-Native Challengers, Accounting Firms, Law and Legal Services
Waterland	6	Accounting Firms
Andreessen Horowitz	5	AI Data Evaluation and Assurance, AI Labs and Services Ventures, AI-Native Challengers
Apax Partners	5	AI Labs and Services Ventures, Accounting Firms, Consulting Advisory and IT Services
Khosla Ventures	5	AI Labs and Services Ventures, AI-Native Challengers
Lightspeed Venture Partners	5	AI Data Evaluation and Assurance, AI Labs and Services Ventures, AI-Native Challengers
Thrive Capital	5	AI Labs and Services Ventures, AI-Native Challengers, Accounting Firms
Bain Capital	4	AI Labs and Services Ventures, AI-Native Challengers, Accounting Firms, Consulting Advisory and IT Services
Bessemer Venture Partners	4	AI-Native Challengers, Accounting Firms
Coatue	4	AI Labs and Services Ventures, AI-Native Challengers
TPG	4	AI Data Evaluation and Assurance, AI Labs and Services Ventures, Accounting Firms
Warburg Pincus	4	AI Data Evaluation and Assurance, AI Labs and Services Ventures, Accounting Firms
Accel	3	AI Data Evaluation and Assurance, AI-Native Challengers
Amazon	3	AI Data Evaluation and Assurance, AI Labs and Services Ventures
CVC Capital Partners	3	Consulting Advisory and IT Services, Law and Legal Services
D1 Capital	3	AI Labs and Services Ventures, AI-Native Challengers
Elad Gil	3	AI-Native Challengers
GIC	3	AI Labs and Services Ventures, AI-Native Challengers
GV	3	AI-Native Challengers
Hg	3	AI Data Evaluation and Assurance, Accounting Firms, Law and Legal Services
ICONIQ	3	AI Labs and Services Ventures, AI-Native Challengers
Investcorp	3	Accounting Firms, Consulting Advisory and IT Services, Law and Legal Services
Lightyear Capital	3	Accounting Firms, Law and Legal Services
New Mountain Capital	3	Accounting Firms
Nvidia	3	AI Data Evaluation and Assurance, AI Labs and Services Ventures, AI-Native Challengers
PSP Investments	3	Accounting Firms, Consulting Advisory and IT Services
Permira	3	Accounting Firms, Consulting Advisory and IT Services, Law and Legal Services
SoftBank	3	AI Labs and Services Ventures, AI-Native Challengers
Y Combinator	3	AI Data Evaluation and Assurance, AI-Native Challengers

Cross-side investors: Same Balance Sheets.

Thrive Holdings

Thrive Capital's permanent-capital roll-up: 70 plus accounting and IT firms, valued at $12bn.

Permanent-capital vehicle spun out of Josh Kushner's Thrive Capital (2025) that creates, owns and operates services businesses and rewires them with AI. Verticals: accounting ('Current', 50+ firms, 2,000+ professionals), IT services (Shield, ~20 companies); planned third vertical in permits/inspections/compliance for physical infrastructure. 70+ businesses total as of Aug 2026.

Valuation / size: $12bn (Aug 2026, >$2bn new capital; >$3bn raised since inception)

Part of the AI Challengers Map. Owned or backed by Thrive Capital, OpenAI, SoftBank, D1 Capital, Altimeter. Of these, Thrive Capital also hold positions on the other side of the incumbent / AI divide — see Same Balance Sheets.

It is itself an owner, investor or acquirer in Shield Technology Partners, Current (Crete Professionals Alliance).

Mechanisms it illustrates: AI roll-up thesis, Labs moving into services (DeployCo, Ode).

Ownership and investors

Investor	Year	Role	Status	Source
Thrive Capital	2025	founder / ~$1bn initial commitments from Thrive LP base	current	source
OpenAI	2025	ownership stake (terms undisclosed); OpenAI engineering/research/product staff embedded in portfolio cos; stake grows if portfolio succeeds	current	source
SoftBank	2026	co-lead $2bn round	current	source
D1 Capital	2026	co-lead $2bn round	current	source
Altimeter	2026	co-lead $2bn round	current	source

Holdings and acquisitions

Company	Year	Role	Status	Source
Shield Technology Partners	2026	creator; $100M investment	current	source
Current (Crete Professionals Alliance)	2025	Accounting arm of Thrive Holdings (~50 firms)	current	—

Notes

OpenAI stake confirmed Dec 1 2025 (TechCrunch/Bloomberg) - widely labelled a 'circular deal' since Thrive Capital is a major OpenAI investor. Company-sourced, unaudited KPIs: Current's TaxAI processed 7,000+ returns at 98% accuracy, prep time -30%; Shield help-desk resolution 36x faster. Newcomer (Dec 2025) cited '>$1bn at its disposal'. No revenue or margin figures disclosed.

Acquired: ~50+ accounting firms (via Current) (2026) (source)
Acquired: ~20 IT services firms (via Shield) (2026) (source)

Sources

AI roll-up thesis

Buy at services multiples, cut labour with AI, hope to be re-rated as software.

Buy fragmented, people-heavy services firms (accounting, IT/MSP, legal, BPO, HOA mgmt) at services multiples, apply AI to cut labour per unit, expand EBITDA margin, use cash flow to buy more, and (hope to) re-rate toward software multiples.

How it works. Acquire at ~1x revenue / ~6x EBITDA with 10-15% EBITDA margins; target 40%+ EBITDA (Fortune) or >=2x EBITDA (GC, Tenet survey); holdco builds central AI platform (e.g., Long Lake Nexus, Thrive engineering team + OpenAI staff) deployed across acquired firms; funds pair VC equity with PE-style permanent capital.

Origin. Classic PE buy-and-build plus 2010s 'tech-enabled roll-ups'; AI variant popularised 2023-25 by Elad Gil, General Catalyst ($1.5bn Creation, 2024), Thrive (2025).

Weaknesses. Hourly billing means efficiency cuts revenue; customers capture savings via price; cost advantage fades as everyone adopts same tools; integration/change management (top investor concern 79%); BPO multiples stay single-digit despite AI (Concentrix); returns may be PE-like 2-3x, not VC 10x; scarce teams with both PE and tech skills; 'workslop' and fewer humans to catch AI errors.

Where it shows up

Thrive Holdings, Current (Crete Professionals Alliance), Shield Technology Partners, General Catalyst Creation, Titan MSP, Long Lake, Crescendo, Eudia.

Index: Rules That Gate Ownership.

Sources

Thesis - AI roll-ups are a bet on re-rating services to software multiples

Billions raised on self-reported margins, while AI-heavy outsourcers still trade as services.

The AI roll-up thesis buys firms at services multiples and hopes AI-driven margins earn software multiples. The backers (Thrive Holdings, General Catalyst Creation, Long Lake) have raised billions, but margin claims are self-reported and listed outsourcers with heavy AI use still trade at services multiples. Committed roll-up capital -$3bn by mid-2026 per one tally; much larger with 2026 raises Compare Services-as-software and Outcome-based pricing.

Index: Start Here.

Services-as-software

Sell the finished work, not the tool, and the market becomes labour spend rather than software.

AI companies sell completed work/outcomes rather than tools, addressing labour and outsourced-services budgets instead of software budgets.

How it works. Agents perform the work; priced per outcome; human-in-the-loop persists. Foundation Capital sizes it at ~$4.6T ($2.3T salaries in sales/marketing, engineering, security, HR + $2.3T outsourced IT/BPS per Gartner).

Origin. Term popularised by Foundation Capital (Joanne Chen, Jaya Gupta), April 2024; Sequoia cites 6:1 services:software spend; GC cites $16T vs $1T.

Weaknesses. TAM is labour spend, but price anchors fall as AI commoditises; liability/regulation (e.g., law firm ownership needs ABS structures like Eudia Counsel in Arizona); margins depend on how much human review remains.

Index: Rules That Gate Ownership.

Sources

Legal Follows Accounting

Thesis - legal is the next accounting

Fragmented, partner-owned and routing around the rules, as accounting did before 2021.

Legal looks like accounting did before 2021: fragmented, partner-owned, with rules (ABA Model Rule 5.4 (professional independence)) that capital is learning to route around via MSO (management services organisation) structure and Arizona Alternative Business Structures (ACJA 7-209). The UK precedent (UK Legal Services Act 2007 ABS regime (SRA and others)) shows both the platforms (DWF, Fletchers) and the failure modes (Axiom Ince, PM Law). AI-native firms (Norm Ai, Eudia, Garfield.Law) are entering through the same doors.

Index: Start Here.

ABA Model Rule 5.4 (professional independence)

The US rule against non-lawyer ownership, adopted in some form by nearly every state.

US model ethics rule barring fee-sharing with non-lawyers, partnerships with non-lawyers for legal practice, non-lawyer ownership/directorship of for-profit law firms, and non-lawyer control of lawyers' judgment.

How it works. Adopted in some form by nearly every state; 5.4(d)(2) bars non-lawyer directors/officers, 5.4(d)(3) bars non-lawyer right to direct/control professional judgment. ABA reaffirmed it in 2022.

Origin. Rooted in 1908 Canons/1928 Canon 33-35 bans; codified in 1983 Model Rules.

Weaknesses. Prevents equity capital for tech/AI; forces annual profit distribution and partner-funded capex; encourages workarounds (MSOs) with no governance standards.

Index: Rules That Gate Ownership.

Sources

MSO (management services organisation) structure

PE buys everything except the practice and is paid a fee for running it.

Workaround used by PE to invest in US law firms without owning the practice.

How it works. Firm split in two: lawyer-owned practice keeps clients, legal work and fees; PE-backed MSO buys non-legal assets/operations (tech, leases, marketing, billing, HR, admin). Long MSA (often 10-30 years) with management fee that must be flat/cost-plus/market-benchmarked, not % of revenue or case profits (Texas Opinion 706, Feb 2025). Investor returns come from MSO fees and MSO equity value. Holland & Knight says it closed 15+ law-firm MSO deals in ~6 months with ~100 in development.

Origin. Imported from US healthcare/dentistry/veterinary 'corporate practice' workarounds; early law-firm MSO deals date to 2006 but surged 2025-26 after KPMG/Arizona and accounting-firm PE wave.

Weaknesses. Control creep via staffing, tech and intake (healthcare precedent: Envision/KKR); lock-in and exit penalties; no bar-issued governance standards or court ruling on boundary; fee-sharing risk; new state limits (California Kalra bill 2026, Illinois HB 5487, Colorado HB 26-1421); Delaware Chief Judge Connolly standing order (Apr 2026) requires disclosure of non-lawyer ownership.

Where it shows up

Rafi Law Group, Dudley DeBosier, McDermott Will and Schulte, Cohen and Gresser, Burford Capital.

Index: Rules That Gate Ownership.

Sources

UK Legal Services Act 2007 ABS regime (SRA and others)

England opened law firm ownership in 2011. Listings and PE platforms followed.

Permits non-lawyer ownership and management of law firms in England & Wales via ABS licences from approved licensing authorities (SRA, CLC, ICAEW etc.); enables PE ownership and stock-market listings.

How it works. ABS licence with Head of Legal Practice and Head of Finance & Administration; owners >10% pass fitness test; Legal Services Board oversees regulators. ABSs licensable from Oct 2011; SRA had 310 ABSs by Aug 2014 (364 incl. CLC). Enabled listings: Gateley (2015), Keystone (2017), Knights (2018), RBG (2018), DWF (2019); PE platforms (Lawfront, Fletchers, Stowe).

Origin. Clementi Review (2004) -> Legal Services Act 2007.

Weaknesses. Supervision of complex/accumulator groups weak: Axiom Ince (£64.5m shortfall, 2023), PM Law (Feb 2026, ~£40m suspected fraud, Compensation Fund ~£30m); Jenner & Block review found SRA 'failure to aggregate information'. Listed firms' mixed share performance; DWF taken private.

Where it shows up

DWF, Knights, Keystone Law, Gateley, Lawfront, Stowe Family Law, Fletchers, Simpson Millar, Garfield.Law, PM Law, Axiom Ince, Lawhive.

Index: Rules That Gate Ownership.

Sources

DWF

Listed in 2019, below its IPO price for much of its life, taken private by Inflexion in 2023.

Global legal & business services firm (~4,000 staff, 30 offices, 18 countries). Listed on LSE Main Market March 2019; taken private by Inflexion (Buyout Fund VI) in Oct 2023 in a ~£342m deal; Inflexion backing US-focused M&A.

Valuation / size: ~£342m equity (2023 take-private)

Part of the Legal Ownership Map. Owned or backed by Inflexion.

Mechanisms it illustrates: UK Legal Services Act 2007 ABS regime (SRA and others).

Ownership and investors

Investor	Year	Role	Status	Source
Inflexion	2023	controlling owner after take-private	current	source

Notes

Listed below IPO price for much of its life (see Artificial Lawyer Jan 2022).

Sources

Axiom Ince

The failure mode: a £64.5m client account shortfall and an SRA shutdown in 2023.

Listed Ince Group (AIM) collapsed 2023; Axiom Ince shut by SRA intervention Oct 2023 after ~£64.5m client account shortfall; insurers now suing SRA.

Valuation / size: collapsed

Part of the Legal Ownership Map.

Mechanisms it illustrates: UK Legal Services Act 2007 ABS regime (SRA and others).

Notes

Cautionary case for listed/acquisitive law firms.

Sources

Garfield.Law

The first AI-based law firm the SRA authorised, chasing small debts from £2 a letter.

First purely AI-based law firm authorised by the SRA (6 May 2025): AI litigation assistant for SME debt recovery via small claims (up to £10k); fees from £2 chaser / £7.50 letter before action; named solicitors accountable; won't propose case law.

Valuation / size: n/a

Part of the AI Challengers Map.

Mechanisms it illustrates: UK Legal Services Act 2007 ABS regime (SRA and others).

Notes

Funding/investors not found. Founder Philip Young.

Sources

Question - will US states open law firm ownership

The open question that decides whether the UK pattern repeats in the largest legal market.

Arizona keeps licensing (Arizona Alternative Business Structures (ACJA 7-209)), Utah is narrowing (Utah regulatory sandbox (Standing Order 15)), California is pushing back (California AB 931 (2025) and follow-on bill), and MSOs are growing in the gap (MSO (management services organisation) structure).

Index: Start Here.

Assurance Before the Mandate

Thesis - assurance demand is real but regulation lags

Labs and buyers pay for evaluation now, while the statutes mostly ask for disclosure.

Paid evaluation exists (Embedded evaluation inside a lab, Irregular, Gray Swan) and certification is being bought by PE (Schellman, A-LIGN), but the main statutes require disclosure rather than audits (Transparency-incident-reporting statutes) and EU high-risk obligations have slipped to 2027–28 (Regulatory conformity assessment). AI security startups mostly exit to cyber platforms (Cyber platform roll-up).

Index: Start Here.

Embedded evaluation inside a lab

Accenture's Faculty evaluates Anthropic from inside, paid by the lab it evaluates.

Partnership announced by Anthropic on 18 Sep 2026: Faculty, Accenture's specialist AI business, leads independent 'embedded evaluators' working inside Anthropic with access comparable to an employee's - observing training, talking to staff, red-teaming models, alignment assessments and safeguard testing. Builds on a Dec 2025 Anthropic-Accenture commercial partnership.

How it works. Anthropic funds Accenture's work directly (no pooled/government funding mechanism exists yet). Each company expects to invest at least $1B building evaluation capacity over five years - that is capacity investment, not a disclosed contract value. Non-exclusive: Accenture can work with other labs; Anthropic also talking to METR and nonprofit evaluators. Anthropic: 'independent embedded evaluators do not reduce our accountability, but help to make it more verifiable.'

Origin. Anthropic announcement, 18 Sep 2026

Weaknesses. Evaluator is paid by the lab it evaluates; fee undisclosed; non-exclusive.

Where it shows up

Faculty, Accenture, Anthropic, METR, Apollo Research, Irregular, Gray Swan.

Index: Rules That Gate Ownership.

Sources

https://www.anthropic.com/news/accenture-embedded-evaluation

Irregular

An offensive-security evaluator cited in OpenAI and Anthropic system cards, valued at $450m.

Frontier AI security lab: offensive-security evaluations of frontier models (SOLVE vulnerability-detection framework), cited in Anthropic Claude 3.7 Sonnet and OpenAI o3/o4-mini system cards.

Valuation / size: $450m (Sept 2025, per source close to deal)

Part of the AI Data and Assurance Map. Owned or backed by Sequoia Capital, Redpoint, Assaf Rappaport.

Mechanisms it illustrates: Embedded evaluation inside a lab.

Ownership and investors

Investor	Year	Role	Status	Source
Sequoia Capital	2025	co-lead $80m	current	source
Redpoint	2025	co-lead $80m	current	source
Assaf Rappaport	2025	participant	current	source

Notes

Founders Dan Lahav, Omer Nevo. Revenue model is paid evaluations for frontier labs (customers not named in source).

Sources

https://techcrunch.com/2025/09/17/irregular-raises-80-million-to-secure-frontier-ai-models

Schellman

An attestation firm and early ISO 42001 certifier, sold to Goldman Sachs in a 2026 secondary.

US accounting firm, #46 in Accounting Today's 2026 Top 100 (FY2025 revenue $197.3M).

Part of the Accounting Ownership Map. Owned or backed by Lightyear Capital, Goldman Sachs. Of these, Goldman Sachs also hold positions on the other side of the incumbent / AI divide — see Same Balance Sheets.

Mechanisms it illustrates: US Alternative Practice Structure (APS), Secondary buyouts and continuation vehicles ('flip era'), Management-system certification (ISO-IEC 42001).

Ownership and investors

Investor	Year	Role	Status	Source
Lightyear Capital	2021	majority 2021; now minority after 2026 deal	current	source
Goldman Sachs	2026	majority, PE-to-PE secondary (announced Mar 2026, expected close Q2 2026)	current	source

Notes

Cybersecurity attestation specialist.

Top-50 CPA/attestation firm (SOC, ISO, FedRAMP, PCI, HITRUST, CMMC, AI governance); 'world's first ANAB-accredited ISO 42001 certification body'.

Announced 5 Mar 2026. Whether close has occurred not verified.

Sources

Transparency-incident-reporting statutes

California and New York require frameworks and incident reports, not third-party audits.

Frontier developer frameworks, transparency reports, incident reporting

How it works. CA SB 53 (signed 29 Sep 2025, eff. 1 Jan 2026, $1m/violation, >1e26 FLOP, $500m revenue); NY RAISE (signed 19 Dec 2025, eff. ~1 Jan 2027, $1m/$3m, DFS office funded by developer assessments, 72h incident reporting)

Origin. Successor to vetoed SB 1047

Weaknesses. No mandatory third-party audit; only ~5-10 covered developers

Index: Rules That Gate Ownership.

Sources

Regulatory conformity assessment

The EU AI Act's high-risk deadlines slip to 2027 and 2028, and most of it is self-assessed.

EU AI Act high-risk conformity assessment (mostly internal control; notified bodies for some Annex I/biometrics)

How it works. Digital Omnibus provisional deal 6 May 2026 delays Annex III high-risk to 2 Dec 2027, Annex I to 2 Aug 2028; GPAI obligations from 2 Aug 2025

Origin. Regulation (EU) 2024/1689

Weaknesses. Delay pushes demand out; most Annex III uses self-assessment, limiting notified-body market

Index: Rules That Gate Ownership.

Sources

https://www.gibsondunn.com/eu-ai-act-omnibus-agreement-postponed-high-risk-deadlines-and-other-key-changes/

Cyber platform roll-up

AI security startups mostly end up as features of Cisco, Palo Alto, CrowdStrike and Check Point.

Large security vendors buy AI-security startups at $250m-$400m+

How it works. Cisco/Robust Intelligence 2024; PANW/Protect AI, SentinelOne/Prompt, CrowdStrike/Pangea, Check Point/Lakera 2025

Origin. AI runtime security treated as a feature of existing platforms

Weaknesses. Caps standalone valuations; evaluation becomes bundled product, not professional service

Where it shows up

Robust Intelligence, Protect AI, Prompt Security, Pangea, Lakera, Cisco.

Index: Rules That Gate Ownership.

Sources

What This Shows

This is what 60x builds on your data

The same pipeline that turned 415 sources into this graph runs on a firm's own files, email, CRM, and meeting notes, with permissions intact. Reports, copilots, and scoring then read from it instead of starting from scratch.

Talk to 60x

All knowledge graphs

Who Owns Professional Services

Who owns the accounting, law and consulting firms, the AI firms built to take their work, and the investors behind both. 609 linked notes, October 2026.

Notes: 609
Links: 1,993
Sources: 415

The Research

Ownership of accounting, law and consulting firms, the AI firms built to take their work, and the investors behind both, as of 2026-10-08. 192 organisations, 282 investors, 446 ownership links.

Ways in

Accounting Ownership Map — US, UK and European firms with outside capital (66 in the graph)
Legal Ownership Map — PE, MSOs, ABSs and listed law firms
Consulting and Advisory Ownership Map — carve-outs, PE platforms, IT services take-privates
AI Challengers Map — labs' services ventures, legal AI, AI roll-ups, AI-native software
AI Data and Assurance Map — training data, evaluation, AI security, certification
Same Balance Sheets · Most Active Investors · Secondaries and Flips · Big 4 and MBB Moves
Rules That Gate Ownership · Evidence Index

What the map shows

Audit and legal practice stay professionally owned; everything around them is for sale. Thesis - audit stays partner-owned while everything else is sold
The same investors own incumbents and fund challengers. Thesis - capital is hedged across incumbents and challengers
Labs are buying into services. Thesis - labs are moving down the stack into services
AI roll-ups are a valuation bet. Thesis - AI roll-ups are a bet on re-rating services to software multiples
Assurance is a market before it is a mandate. Thesis - assurance demand is real but regulation lags
Legal is following accounting. Thesis - legal is the next accounting

Open questions

Question - will consolidation be firms buying firms or capital buying the value chain
Question - what happens when the 2021-24 PE vintages need to exit
Question - will regulators tighten independence rules for PE-backed audit firms
Question - will US states open law firm ownership
Question - will clients buy outcomes delivered by several providers
Question - what does AI safety mean for cyber IP law infrastructure and energy work

Caveats: Confidence and Gaps.

Audit Stays, Advisory Sells

Thesis - audit stays partner-owned while everything else is sold

One pattern in four jurisdictions: the licensed practice stays professional, the rest is sold.

Index: Start Here.

US Alternative Practice Structure (APS)

Split the CPA firm in two. Partners keep the audit; PE buys the tax and advisory company.

Second research pass: Splits a CPA firm into a partner-owned attest entity and a PE-owned advisory/tax entity

Origin. US mid-tier accounting firms 2021+ (Citrin Cooperman/New Mountain 2022, Baker Tilly/H&F 2024, Grant Thornton/New Mountain 2024); UK Grant Thornton/Cinven 2024

Weaknesses. Audit independence 'grey areas'; regulator scrutiny; short-term return pressure; partner/staff cultural friction.

Where it shows up

Index: Rules That Gate Ownership.

Sources

Crowe

KKR's 2026 deal: control of Crowe Advisory at a reported $3bn, with Crowe LLP still CPA-owned.

US accounting firm, #12 in Accounting Today's 2026 Top 100 (FY2025 revenue $1,400M).

Valuation / size: US revenue ~$1.28bn

Part of the Accounting Ownership Map. Owned or backed by KKR.

Mechanisms it illustrates: US Alternative Practice Structure (APS).

Ownership and investors

Investor	Year	Role	Status	Source
KKR	2026	majority/control of Crowe Advisory LLC (announced Jun 11 2026, closed Aug 7 2026); WSJ-reported valuation ~ $3B	current	source

Notes

Crowe LLP remains CPA-owned attest firm. Partners retain minority.

Reference: big 2026 APS deal

Included as structural reference.

Size: US revenue ~$1.28bn

Sources

UK audit-firm control requirement (Companies Act 2006 Sch.10 para 7 and ICAEW Audit Regulations)

Qualified auditors must hold the votes. Economic interest can still sit with the fund.

Origin. Companies Act 2006 Schedule 10; EU Statutory Audit Directive Art.3 heritage; ICAEW as RSB; FRC as competent authority.

Weaknesses. Economic interest can sit with PE while voting control sits with auditors; interlocking boards and management service fees flagged as indirect-influence routes.

Where it shows up

Grant Thornton UK, Azets, Cooper Parry, S and W, Moore Kingston Smith, Sumer, AAB, Unity Advisory.

Index: Rules That Gate Ownership.

Sources

Grant Thornton UK

The largest UK accountancy PE deal: Cinven takes about 60 percent at a reported £1.5bn.

Mid-tier audit, tax and advisory firm; largest UK accountancy PE deal to date

Valuation / size: No.7 in Accountancy Age Top 50+50 2024 (fee income £654m, 2023); £787m revenue latest year; rolling 12m to June 2026 >£800m; described as UK's sixth-largest

Part of the Accounting Ownership Map. Owned or backed by Cinven.

Mechanisms it illustrates: UK audit-firm control requirement (Companies Act 2006 Sch.10 para 7 and ICAEW Audit Regulations).

Ownership and investors

Investor	Year	Role	Status	Source
Cinven	2024	Majority (~60%) stake; announced 16 Dec 2024, completed early 2025 (Q1)	current	source

Notes

Size: No.7 in Accountancy Age Top 50+50 2024 (fee income £654m, 2023); £787m revenue latest year; rolling 12m to June 2026 >£800m; described as UK's sixth-largest

UK's 6th largest accountant; advisory-heavy

First major UK PE deal in a top-10 accountant; partners remain significant shareholders. Revenue >£800m rolling 12m to Jun 2026, target £1bn by end-2027. Critics cite audit-independence risk.

Sources

Partner economics in PE deals

Cash and rolled equity now, lower pay later. Grant Thornton UK partners got about £160k each.

Partners sell part of future profits/equity for an upfront payment plus rolled equity; salaried compensation reset below historical profit share to create EBITDA.

Origin. Deal practice.

Index: Rules That Gate Ownership.

Sources

Secondary buyouts and continuation vehicles ('flip era')

First-round owners sell to bigger funds, or reach for continuation vehicles when bids disappoint.

First-generation PE owners sell accounting platforms to bigger PE funds, or roll them into continuation funds when exit valuations disappoint.

Origin. PE market practice.

Weaknesses. Valuations described as 'ludicrously high' 12 months earlier; AI uncertainty over future cash flows.

Where it shows up

Citrin Cooperman, EisnerAmper, Schellman, Smith and Howard, Prosperity Partners, Richey May, Fletchers, Interpath Advisory, Sumer, Cooper Parry, Dains, Shaw Gibbs, AAB.

Index: Rules That Gate Ownership.

Sources

Citrin Cooperman

The first US accounting flip: New Mountain to Blackstone, reportedly 15x EBITDA against 11x in.

US accounting firm, #16 in Accounting Today's 2026 Top 100 (FY2025 revenue $985M).

Mechanisms it illustrates: US Alternative Practice Structure (APS), Secondary buyouts and continuation vehicles ('flip era').

Ownership and investors

Investor	Year	Role	Status	Source
New Mountain Capital	2021	majority (announced Oct 2021, closed 2022); exited Jan 2025	prior	source
Blackstone	2025	PE-to-PE secondary (announced Jan 7 2025); reported ~15x EBITDA vs 11x entry; ~US$2B reported	current	source

Notes

Sources

Labs Move Into Services

Thesis - labs are moving down the stack into services

Both frontier labs now own or co-own a services business, with consultancies as minority holders.

Index: Start Here.

OpenAI

Parent of DeployCo and a shareholder in Thrive Holdings, the AI roll-up vehicle.

Frontier AI lab (ChatGPT, GPT models, Frontier enterprise agent platform). Parent of DeployCo.

Valuation / size: $852bn post-money (closed). Reportedly seeking >=$30bn at ~$1.4tn (Bloomberg, 30 Sep 2026 - in talks, NOT closed). IPO postponed beyond 2026 per reports. (as of 2026-03-31)

It is itself an owner, investor or acquirer in DeployCo, Thrive Holdings.

Mechanisms it illustrates: Labs moving into services (DeployCo, Ode), Big 4 and MBB alliances with AI labs.

Ownership and investors

Investor	Year	Role	Status	Source
Amazon	2026	$50bn anchor in $122bn round (reported)	current	source
Nvidia	2026	$30bn in $122bn round (reported)	current	source
SoftBank	2026	$30bn in 2026 round; led 2025 $40bn round	current	source
Microsoft	2023	~$13bn strategic 2019-23; in 2026 round	current	source
Thrive Capital	2024	Led Oct 2024 $6.6bn round (~$1.3bn reported)	current	—
Andreessen Horowitz	2026	2026 round syndicate (secondary-source listing)	reported	source
DE Shaw	2026	2026 round syndicate (secondary-source listing)	reported	source
MGX	2026	2026 round syndicate (secondary-source listing)	reported	source
TPG	2026	2026 round syndicate (secondary-source listing)	reported	source
T Rowe Price	2026	2026 round syndicate (secondary-source listing)	reported	source
Sequoia Capital	2026	2026 round syndicate (secondary-source listing)	reported	source
BlackRock	2026	2026 round syndicate (secondary-source listing)	reported	source
Blackstone	2026	2026 round syndicate (secondary-source listing)	reported	source
Fidelity	2026	2026 round syndicate (secondary-source listing)	reported	source

Holdings and acquisitions

Company	Year	Role	Status	Source
DeployCo	2026	Majority owner and controller	current	source
Thrive Holdings	2025	ownership stake (terms undisclosed); OpenAI engineering/research/product staff embedded in portfolio cos; stake grows if portfolio succeeds	current	source

Alliances (no equity)

Partner	Nature	Source
McKinsey and Company	Frontier Alliance partner (Feb 2026)	source
BCG	Frontier Alliance partner (Feb 2026)	source
Accenture	Frontier Alliance partner (Feb 2026)	source
Capgemini	Frontier Alliance partner (Feb 2026)	source
Bain and Company	Global services alliance since Feb 2023 (Coca-Cola first client)	source
PwC	First reseller of ChatGPT Enterprise (2024)	source

See Big 4 and MBB alliances with AI labs.

Notes

Sources

DeployCo

OpenAI's deployment arm, launched May 2026 at about $14bn post-money with 19 partner firms.

Valuation / size: $10bn pre-money / ~$14bn post-money (as of 2026-05-11)

It is itself an owner, investor or acquirer in Tomoro.

Mechanisms it illustrates: Forward-deployed engineering (FDE), Labs moving into services (DeployCo, Ode), Outcome-based pricing.

Ownership and investors

Investor	Year	Role	Status	Source
TPG	2026	Founding capital, lead / co-lead founding partner	current	source
Advent International	2026	Founding capital, lead / co-lead founding partner	current	source
Bain Capital	2026	Founding capital, lead / co-lead founding partner	current	source
Brookfield	2026	Founding capital, lead / co-lead founding partner	current	source
B Capital	2026	Founding partner	current	source
BBVA	2026	Founding partner	current	source
Emergence Capital	2026	Founding partner	current	source
Goanna	2026	Founding partner	current	source
Goldman Sachs	2026	Founding partner	current	source
SoftBank	2026	Founding partner	current	source
Warburg Pincus	2026	Founding partner	current	source
WCAS	2026	Founding partner	current	source
McKinsey and Company	2026	Minority investor (consultancy)	current	source
Bain and Company	2026	Minority investor (consultancy)	current	source
Capgemini	2026	Minority investor (consultancy)	current	source
OpenAI	2026	Majority owner and controller	current	source

Holdings and acquisitions

Company	Year	Role	Status	Source
Tomoro	2026	Acquisition agreed (subject to regulatory approval)	pending	source

Notes

Total raised: More than $4bn initial investment (OpenAI release); 19 investors

Partners collectively sponsor 2,000+ businesses - a captive PE-portfolio channel. No CEO named in coverage found.

Acquired: Tomoro (pending, ~150 FDEs) (2026) (source)

Sources

Tomoro

An Edinburgh consultancy of about 150 forward-deployed engineers, being bought by DeployCo.

UK applied-AI consultancy (Edinburgh/London, ~150 forward-deployed engineers; clients incl. Tesco, Virgin Atlantic, Supercell).

Valuation / size: Deal price not disclosed

Part of the AI Challengers Map. Owned or backed by DeployCo (pending).

Mechanisms it illustrates: Forward-deployed engineering (FDE).

Ownership and investors

Investor	Year	Role	Status	Source
DeployCo	2026	Acquisition agreed (subject to regulatory approval)	pending	source

Notes

Closing expected 'in the coming months' from May 2026; completion not verified.

Sources

Anthropic

Founding partner in Ode, and the lab that pays Accenture's Faculty to evaluate it from inside.

Frontier AI lab (Claude). Founding partner in Ode.

It is itself an owner, investor or acquirer in Ode.

Mechanisms it illustrates: Labs moving into services (DeployCo, Ode), Embedded evaluation inside a lab, Big 4 and MBB alliances with AI labs.

Ownership and investors

Investor	Year	Role	Status	Source
Altimeter	2026	Series H co-lead ($65bn at $965bn)	current	source
Dragoneer	2026	Series H co-lead ($65bn at $965bn)	current	source
Greenoaks	2026	Series H co-lead ($65bn at $965bn)	current	source
Sequoia Capital	2026	Series H co-lead ($65bn at $965bn)	current	source
Capital Group	2026	Series H co-lead ($65bn at $965bn)	current	source
Coatue	2026	Series H co-lead ($65bn at $965bn)	current	source
D1 Capital	2026	Series H co-lead ($65bn at $965bn)	current	source
Baillie Gifford	2026	Series H participant	current	source
Blackstone	2026	Series H participant	current	source
Brookfield	2026	Series H participant	current	source
DE Shaw	2026	Series H participant	current	source
DST Global	2026	Series H participant	current	source
Fidelity	2026	Series H participant	current	source
Samsung	2026	Series H participant	current	source
SK Hynix	2026	Series H participant	current	source
Micron	2026	Series H participant	current	source
Amazon	2026	$8bn strategic 2023-24, plus $5bn in Series H	current	source
GIC	2026	Series G co-lead ($30bn at $380bn)	current	—
ICONIQ	2025	Series F lead ($13bn at $183bn)	current	—
Lightspeed Venture Partners	2025	Series F co-lead	current	—
Google	2025	Strategic investor, ~$3bn+ (reported)	current	—

Holdings and acquisitions

Company	Year	Role	Status	Source
Ode	2026	Founding partner ($300m reported)	current	source

Alliances (no equity)

Partner	Nature	Source
Deloitte	Claude rolled out to ~470,000 staff (2025)	source
Accenture	Anthropic Business Group (Dec 2025); Faculty embedded evaluation (Sep 2026)	source
PwC	Alliance expansion, 30,000 US staff certified (May 2026)	source
KPMG	Global alliance, Claude to ~276,000 staff (May 2026)	source

See Big 4 and MBB alliances with AI labs.

Notes

Sources

https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/28/anthropic-raises-65-billion-nears-1t-valuation-ahead-of-ipo/

Ode

Anthropic, Blackstone, H&F and Goldman's services firm, about $1.5bn of committed capital.

Valuation / size: Not disclosed. ~$1.5bn is committed capital (WSJ via Fortune); TechCrunch (May 4) loosely labels $1.5bn a 'valuation' - treat as capital, not valuation. (as of 2026-05-04)

It is itself an owner, investor or acquirer in Fractional AI.

Mechanisms it illustrates: Forward-deployed engineering (FDE), Labs moving into services (DeployCo, Ode).

Ownership and investors

Investor	Year	Role	Status	Source
Anthropic	2026	Founding partner ($300m reported)	current	source
Blackstone	2026	Founding partner ($300m reported; conceived the venture)	current	source
Hellman and Friedman	2026	Founding partner ($300m reported)	current	source
Goldman Sachs	2026	Founding partner (amount unconfirmed)	current	source
General Atlantic	2026	Consortium backer	current	source
Leonard Green	2026	Consortium backer	current	source
Apollo Global Management	2026	Consortium backer	current	source
GIC	2026	Consortium backer	current	source
Sequoia Capital	2026	Consortium backer	current	source
Apollo	2026	consortium members	current	source

Holdings and acquisitions

Company	Year	Role	Status	Source
Fractional AI	2026	Acquired; forms Ode's core	current	source

Notes

No consultancy (MBB/Big 4) investors found - unlike DeployCo, Ode's backers are PE/financial. TechCrunch frames Deloitte and Accenture as competitors.

CEO Chris Taylor, CTO Eddie Siegel (Fractional co-founders). Fractional ended an 11-month OpenAI partnership when acquired. PointClickCare partnership Aug 13 2026.

Acquired: Fractional AI (2026) (source)

Sources

Fractional AI

The engineering firm bought in May 2026 to become Ode's core. Its founders now run Ode.

US AI engineering firm acquired in May 2026 to form the operational core of Ode; co-founders Chris Taylor and Eddie Siegel became Ode's CEO and CTO.

Valuation / size: Acquisition price undisclosed

Part of the AI Challengers Map. Owned or backed by Ode.

Mechanisms it illustrates: Forward-deployed engineering (FDE).

Ownership and investors

Investor	Year	Role	Status	Source
Ode	2026	Acquired; forms Ode's core	current	source

Notes

Applied AI services/engineering firm; acquired May 2026 to become Ode's operating core.

Sources

Forward-deployed engineering (FDE)

Palantir's model of engineers at the client: deep integration, consultancy margins.

Engineers embedded at the customer who configure a platform to the customer's hardest problems and feed learnings back to product.

Origin. Palantir (FDSE/'Delta' role, 2010s).

Where it shows up

DeployCo, Ode, Tomoro, Fractional AI, Faculty, Distyl AI, Invisible Technologies.

Index: Rules That Gate Ownership.

Sources

Same Money, Both Sides

Thesis - capital is hedged across incumbents and challengers

If AI shrinks billable hours at a portfolio firm, the same owner's AI bet takes the spend.

Index: Start Here.

Same Balance Sheets

Eleven investors that hold incumbent firms and the AI firms built to replace them.

Investors that own or back incumbent professional-services firms (accounting, law, consulting) and AI-native challengers or lab services ventures.

Investor	Incumbent-side holdings	AI-side holdings
Apax Partners	CohnReznick, S and W, Thoughtworks, Kin and Carta	Faculty
Bain Capital	Sikich, Guidehouse	DeployCo, Legora
Bessemer Venture Partners	Carr Riggs and Ingram, Current (Crete Professionals Alliance)	Legora, Fieldguide
Blackstone	Citrin Cooperman, Mphasis	Ode, OpenAI †, Anthropic, Norm Ai
General Atlantic	Frazier and Deeter	Ode
Goldman Sachs	Schellman, AAB	DeployCo, Ode, Harvey, Fieldguide
Hellman and Friedman	Baker Tilly	Ode
Hg	Azets	A-LIGN
TPG	Smith and Howard	DeployCo, OpenAI †, Surge AI †
Thrive Capital	Current (Crete Professionals Alliance)	OpenAI, Thrive Holdings, Long Lake, Rogo
Warburg Pincus	Unity Advisory	DeployCo, Surge AI †, A-LIGN

Most Active Investors

Who appears most often, and which of them spans accounting, law, consulting and AI at once.

Investors with three or more holdings in this graph.

Investor	Holdings	Segments
General Catalyst	8	AI Data Evaluation and Assurance, AI-Native Challengers
Sequoia Capital	8	AI Data Evaluation and Assurance, AI Labs and Services Ventures, AI-Native Challengers
Blackstone	7	AI Labs and Services Ventures, AI-Native Challengers, Accounting Firms, Consulting Advisory and IT Services, Law and Legal Services
Goldman Sachs	7	AI Labs and Services Ventures, AI-Native Challengers, Accounting Firms, Law and Legal Services
Waterland	6	Accounting Firms
Andreessen Horowitz	5	AI Data Evaluation and Assurance, AI Labs and Services Ventures, AI-Native Challengers
Apax Partners	5	AI Labs and Services Ventures, Accounting Firms, Consulting Advisory and IT Services
Khosla Ventures	5	AI Labs and Services Ventures, AI-Native Challengers
Lightspeed Venture Partners	5	AI Data Evaluation and Assurance, AI Labs and Services Ventures, AI-Native Challengers
Thrive Capital	5	AI Labs and Services Ventures, AI-Native Challengers, Accounting Firms
Bain Capital	4	AI Labs and Services Ventures, AI-Native Challengers, Accounting Firms, Consulting Advisory and IT Services
Bessemer Venture Partners	4	AI-Native Challengers, Accounting Firms
Coatue	4	AI Labs and Services Ventures, AI-Native Challengers
TPG	4	AI Data Evaluation and Assurance, AI Labs and Services Ventures, Accounting Firms
Warburg Pincus	4	AI Data Evaluation and Assurance, AI Labs and Services Ventures, Accounting Firms
Accel	3	AI Data Evaluation and Assurance, AI-Native Challengers
Amazon	3	AI Data Evaluation and Assurance, AI Labs and Services Ventures
CVC Capital Partners	3	Consulting Advisory and IT Services, Law and Legal Services
D1 Capital	3	AI Labs and Services Ventures, AI-Native Challengers
Elad Gil	3	AI-Native Challengers
GIC	3	AI Labs and Services Ventures, AI-Native Challengers
GV	3	AI-Native Challengers
Hg	3	AI Data Evaluation and Assurance, Accounting Firms, Law and Legal Services
ICONIQ	3	AI Labs and Services Ventures, AI-Native Challengers
Investcorp	3	Accounting Firms, Consulting Advisory and IT Services, Law and Legal Services
Lightyear Capital	3	Accounting Firms, Law and Legal Services
New Mountain Capital	3	Accounting Firms
Nvidia	3	AI Data Evaluation and Assurance, AI Labs and Services Ventures, AI-Native Challengers
PSP Investments	3	Accounting Firms, Consulting Advisory and IT Services
Permira	3	Accounting Firms, Consulting Advisory and IT Services, Law and Legal Services
SoftBank	3	AI Labs and Services Ventures, AI-Native Challengers
Y Combinator	3	AI Data Evaluation and Assurance, AI-Native Challengers

Cross-side investors: Same Balance Sheets.

Thrive Holdings

Thrive Capital's permanent-capital roll-up: 70 plus accounting and IT firms, valued at $12bn.

Valuation / size: $12bn (Aug 2026, >$2bn new capital; >$3bn raised since inception)

It is itself an owner, investor or acquirer in Shield Technology Partners, Current (Crete Professionals Alliance).

Mechanisms it illustrates: AI roll-up thesis, Labs moving into services (DeployCo, Ode).

Ownership and investors

Investor	Year	Role	Status	Source
Thrive Capital	2025	founder / ~$1bn initial commitments from Thrive LP base	current	source
OpenAI	2025	ownership stake (terms undisclosed); OpenAI engineering/research/product staff embedded in portfolio cos; stake grows if portfolio succeeds	current	source
SoftBank	2026	co-lead $2bn round	current	source
D1 Capital	2026	co-lead $2bn round	current	source
Altimeter	2026	co-lead $2bn round	current	source

Holdings and acquisitions

Company	Year	Role	Status	Source
Shield Technology Partners	2026	creator; $100M investment	current	source
Current (Crete Professionals Alliance)	2025	Accounting arm of Thrive Holdings (~50 firms)	current	—

Notes

Acquired: ~50+ accounting firms (via Current) (2026) (source)
Acquired: ~20 IT services firms (via Shield) (2026) (source)

Sources

AI roll-up thesis

Buy at services multiples, cut labour with AI, hope to be re-rated as software.

Origin. Classic PE buy-and-build plus 2010s 'tech-enabled roll-ups'; AI variant popularised 2023-25 by Elad Gil, General Catalyst ($1.5bn Creation, 2024), Thrive (2025).

Where it shows up

Thrive Holdings, Current (Crete Professionals Alliance), Shield Technology Partners, General Catalyst Creation, Titan MSP, Long Lake, Crescendo, Eudia.

Index: Rules That Gate Ownership.

Sources

Thesis - AI roll-ups are a bet on re-rating services to software multiples

Billions raised on self-reported margins, while AI-heavy outsourcers still trade as services.

Index: Start Here.

Services-as-software

Sell the finished work, not the tool, and the market becomes labour spend rather than software.

AI companies sell completed work/outcomes rather than tools, addressing labour and outsourced-services budgets instead of software budgets.

Origin. Term popularised by Foundation Capital (Joanne Chen, Jaya Gupta), April 2024; Sequoia cites 6:1 services:software spend; GC cites $16T vs $1T.

Index: Rules That Gate Ownership.

Sources

Legal Follows Accounting

Thesis - legal is the next accounting

Fragmented, partner-owned and routing around the rules, as accounting did before 2021.

Index: Start Here.

ABA Model Rule 5.4 (professional independence)

The US rule against non-lawyer ownership, adopted in some form by nearly every state.

Origin. Rooted in 1908 Canons/1928 Canon 33-35 bans; codified in 1983 Model Rules.

Weaknesses. Prevents equity capital for tech/AI; forces annual profit distribution and partner-funded capex; encourages workarounds (MSOs) with no governance standards.

Index: Rules That Gate Ownership.

Sources

MSO (management services organisation) structure

PE buys everything except the practice and is paid a fee for running it.

Workaround used by PE to invest in US law firms without owning the practice.

Origin. Imported from US healthcare/dentistry/veterinary 'corporate practice' workarounds; early law-firm MSO deals date to 2006 but surged 2025-26 after KPMG/Arizona and accounting-firm PE wave.

Where it shows up

Rafi Law Group, Dudley DeBosier, McDermott Will and Schulte, Cohen and Gresser, Burford Capital.

Index: Rules That Gate Ownership.

Sources

UK Legal Services Act 2007 ABS regime (SRA and others)

England opened law firm ownership in 2011. Listings and PE platforms followed.

Origin. Clementi Review (2004) -> Legal Services Act 2007.

Where it shows up

DWF, Knights, Keystone Law, Gateley, Lawfront, Stowe Family Law, Fletchers, Simpson Millar, Garfield.Law, PM Law, Axiom Ince, Lawhive.

Index: Rules That Gate Ownership.

Sources

DWF

Listed in 2019, below its IPO price for much of its life, taken private by Inflexion in 2023.

Valuation / size: ~£342m equity (2023 take-private)

Part of the Legal Ownership Map. Owned or backed by Inflexion.

Mechanisms it illustrates: UK Legal Services Act 2007 ABS regime (SRA and others).

Ownership and investors

Investor	Year	Role	Status	Source
Inflexion	2023	controlling owner after take-private	current	source

Notes

Listed below IPO price for much of its life (see Artificial Lawyer Jan 2022).

Sources

Axiom Ince

The failure mode: a £64.5m client account shortfall and an SRA shutdown in 2023.

Listed Ince Group (AIM) collapsed 2023; Axiom Ince shut by SRA intervention Oct 2023 after ~£64.5m client account shortfall; insurers now suing SRA.

Valuation / size: collapsed

Part of the Legal Ownership Map.

Mechanisms it illustrates: UK Legal Services Act 2007 ABS regime (SRA and others).

Notes

Cautionary case for listed/acquisitive law firms.

Sources

Garfield.Law

The first AI-based law firm the SRA authorised, chasing small debts from £2 a letter.

Valuation / size: n/a

Part of the AI Challengers Map.

Mechanisms it illustrates: UK Legal Services Act 2007 ABS regime (SRA and others).

Notes

Funding/investors not found. Founder Philip Young.

Sources

Question - will US states open law firm ownership

The open question that decides whether the UK pattern repeats in the largest legal market.

Index: Start Here.

Assurance Before the Mandate

Thesis - assurance demand is real but regulation lags

Labs and buyers pay for evaluation now, while the statutes mostly ask for disclosure.

Index: Start Here.

Embedded evaluation inside a lab

Accenture's Faculty evaluates Anthropic from inside, paid by the lab it evaluates.

Origin. Anthropic announcement, 18 Sep 2026

Weaknesses. Evaluator is paid by the lab it evaluates; fee undisclosed; non-exclusive.

Where it shows up

Faculty, Accenture, Anthropic, METR, Apollo Research, Irregular, Gray Swan.

Index: Rules That Gate Ownership.

Sources

https://www.anthropic.com/news/accenture-embedded-evaluation

Irregular

An offensive-security evaluator cited in OpenAI and Anthropic system cards, valued at $450m.

Frontier AI security lab: offensive-security evaluations of frontier models (SOLVE vulnerability-detection framework), cited in Anthropic Claude 3.7 Sonnet and OpenAI o3/o4-mini system cards.

Valuation / size: $450m (Sept 2025, per source close to deal)

Part of the AI Data and Assurance Map. Owned or backed by Sequoia Capital, Redpoint, Assaf Rappaport.

Mechanisms it illustrates: Embedded evaluation inside a lab.

Ownership and investors

Investor	Year	Role	Status	Source
Sequoia Capital	2025	co-lead $80m	current	source
Redpoint	2025	co-lead $80m	current	source
Assaf Rappaport	2025	participant	current	source

Notes

Founders Dan Lahav, Omer Nevo. Revenue model is paid evaluations for frontier labs (customers not named in source).

Sources

https://techcrunch.com/2025/09/17/irregular-raises-80-million-to-secure-frontier-ai-models

Schellman

An attestation firm and early ISO 42001 certifier, sold to Goldman Sachs in a 2026 secondary.

US accounting firm, #46 in Accounting Today's 2026 Top 100 (FY2025 revenue $197.3M).

Mechanisms it illustrates: US Alternative Practice Structure (APS), Secondary buyouts and continuation vehicles ('flip era'), Management-system certification (ISO-IEC 42001).

Ownership and investors

Investor	Year	Role	Status	Source
Lightyear Capital	2021	majority 2021; now minority after 2026 deal	current	source
Goldman Sachs	2026	majority, PE-to-PE secondary (announced Mar 2026, expected close Q2 2026)	current	source

Notes

Cybersecurity attestation specialist.

Top-50 CPA/attestation firm (SOC, ISO, FedRAMP, PCI, HITRUST, CMMC, AI governance); 'world's first ANAB-accredited ISO 42001 certification body'.

Announced 5 Mar 2026. Whether close has occurred not verified.

Sources

Transparency-incident-reporting statutes

California and New York require frameworks and incident reports, not third-party audits.

Frontier developer frameworks, transparency reports, incident reporting

Origin. Successor to vetoed SB 1047

Weaknesses. No mandatory third-party audit; only ~5-10 covered developers

Index: Rules That Gate Ownership.

Sources

Regulatory conformity assessment

The EU AI Act's high-risk deadlines slip to 2027 and 2028, and most of it is self-assessed.

EU AI Act high-risk conformity assessment (mostly internal control; notified bodies for some Annex I/biometrics)

How it works. Digital Omnibus provisional deal 6 May 2026 delays Annex III high-risk to 2 Dec 2027, Annex I to 2 Aug 2028; GPAI obligations from 2 Aug 2025

Origin. Regulation (EU) 2024/1689

Weaknesses. Delay pushes demand out; most Annex III uses self-assessment, limiting notified-body market

Index: Rules That Gate Ownership.

Sources

https://www.gibsondunn.com/eu-ai-act-omnibus-agreement-postponed-high-risk-deadlines-and-other-key-changes/

Cyber platform roll-up

AI security startups mostly end up as features of Cisco, Palo Alto, CrowdStrike and Check Point.

Large security vendors buy AI-security startups at $250m-$400m+

How it works. Cisco/Robust Intelligence 2024; PANW/Protect AI, SentinelOne/Prompt, CrowdStrike/Pangea, Check Point/Lakera 2025

Origin. AI runtime security treated as a feature of existing platforms

Weaknesses. Caps standalone valuations; evaluation becomes bundled product, not professional service

Where it shows up

Robust Intelligence, Protect AI, Prompt Security, Pangea, Lakera, Cisco.

Index: Rules That Gate Ownership.

Sources

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