From the AI Lab at EPFL to Building a Global Category Leader: Nexthink's Journey

As Vista Equity Partners announces its strategic majority investment in Nexthink at approximately $3 billion valuation—which includes the acquisition of holdings from early backers including Index Ventures—our founding partner Neil Rimer reflects on the company's story.

Nexthink's story began in 2004 when three researchers at EPFL in Lausanne—Pedro Bados, Patrick Hertzog, and Vincent Bieri—turned their breakthrough work in artificial intelligence and real-time monitoring into a company. The problem they set out to solve was straightforward: IT teams lacked visibility into the actual employee experience of the technology they deployed. Applying AI principles, their platform gave enterprises the ability to proactively identify and remediate problems before they affect productivity.

Although the company eventually pivoted its focus from enterprise security to productivity and observability, its approach today remains consistent with its founders’ original insights around network awareness.

As workplaces navigate constant tool changes and accelerating AI adoption, this capability has become essential. Today, Nexthink supports 25 million employees across over 1,500 enterprise customers and has helped establish Digital Employee Experience (DEX) as a distinct category. The company is now dual-headquartered in Lausanne and Boston, with 9 offices worldwide.

As Pedro has noted, Nexthink isn’t a story of rapid hypergrowth. It is a journey of resilience, continuous improvement, and a culture centred around its people.

We met Pedro in the early days of the company and stayed close to him for several years before engaging with him as investors. Over the past several years of working with him, what has struck me most is how he combines world-class vision, ambition and discipline with humility and genuine kindness. Pedro cares deeply about people; his team, his customers and his partners, while maintaining the relentless focus required to build a business of significant scale.

We've been so fortunate to partner with Pedro and Nexthink, and congratulate them on today's announcement that values the company at approximately $3bn and sets them up for the next stage of growth. Now, as AI fundamentally reshapes how we all work, the story of Nexthink is only just beginning.