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We all agree: quarterly valuations are the least favorite part of the PE job. Endless reconciliation of historical financials, tweaking decade-old Excel templates, and somehow doing it all in the middle of board-meeting season.
That’s why I’m paying attention to what Carta is doing with AI. Instead of trying to replace the intellectually stimulating parts of the job—the investing part—Carta’s PE Admin solution uses AI to streamline the back-office grind: fund reporting, valuations, and portfolio data workflows.
Carta was the OG in automating manual cap-table management for the VC world. Now they’re bringing that same discipline to private equity.
If quarterly valuations eat up your team’s time, this free Carta report is worth sharing with your team to reclaim those wasted hours. It breaks down:
- How AI is reshaping fund reporting and portfolio management
- What “agentic AI” actually means for eliminating repetitive tasks
On Thursday, we shared a hyper-growth, profitable Shopify agency deal you can go acquire. In today’s piece, we dive into how PE is participating in the rise of Shopify by investing in the services ecosystem.
PE Playbook: Shopify Services Partners
State of Play
We live in a very interesting time. Consumer sentiment is near record-lows…
Source: University of Michigan via FRED
…but Thanksgiving shopping hit a record high.
In 2025, U.S. consumers spent $11.8B online on Black Friday (+9% YoY) and $44.2B online during the five-day stretch from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday (+7.7% YoY).
Source: resourcera
And who is behind this massive eCommerce spend? Shopify. It’s the dominant eCommerce software player with over 30% U.S. market share, powering brands ranging from digital-first names like Gymshark to legacy brands like Heinz.
But more interestingly for private equity: Shopify has built a huge ecosystem of services partners—who collectively generate more than 7× Shopify’s own revenue.
Let’s dive into Shopify and PE’s services playbook capitalizing on this meteoric rise.