Vertical SaaS

Fidelity National Information Services said its core banking business is gaining traction as banks launch, merge and modernize their technology, signing five newly chartered banks in the first half of 2026, including Mercury, which has conditional approval for a national bank charter and FDIC deposit insurance approval. FIS also won the core banking mandate for a newly formed U.S. institution with more than $100 billion in assets. Two top-15 U.S. banks completed proofs of value for FIS' enterprise platform strategy, which lets banks progressively adopt modern capabilities, including AI, while preserving the stability of their existing core environments. The wins come as the FDIC approved 14 deposit insurance applications in the year through April 2026, twice the number approved during calendar 2025, signaling renewed de novo activity in banking. FIS shares have declined 44.6% year to date, and the stock carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

Autodesk previewed a next-generation, agentic version of Autodesk Assistant spanning its three industry clouds at Autodesk University 2026 in Las Vegas. The three clouds are Autodesk Forma for Architecture, Engineering, and Construction, Autodesk Fusion for Design and Manufacturing, and Autodesk Flow for Media and Entertainment, and the expanded experience is designed to extend across products, projects, and teams rather than inside a single tool. Autodesk Assistant is generally available today across many Autodesk products, including Fusion, Forma, and Flow, while the next-generation experience is not yet generally available and is planned to begin rolling out in 2027, with a standalone experience also planned for that year. The next generation is built around three priorities: Personal Pulse and Assistant Spaces to surface and investigate what needs attention, acting across workflows through natural-language and voice interaction, and Assistant Builder, which lets customers connect their own AI agents, tools and trusted partner services to Autodesk project context, with support planned for third-party agents from the Design & Make Marketplace. President and CEO Andrew Anagnost said the constraint in these industries has never been about ideas but capacity, and that the intelligence is grounded in more than four decades of Autodesk industry expertise. Autodesk said availability, rollout timing, subscription terms, and regional details for the next-generation capabilities will be announced in 2027, and that its 2027 State of Design & Make Report found 70% of Design and Make leaders and experts surveyed expect AI to reduce mundane and repetitive work.

Oracle Corporation reported first-quarter fiscal 2027 non-GAAP earnings of $1.92 per share, beating the $1.74 Zacks Consensus Estimate, on revenues of $19.35 billion that topped the consensus mark of $19.13 billion. Chief financial officer Hilary Maxson said Oracle now expects fiscal 2027 revenues of at least $90 billion, representing growth of 34%, and non-GAAP earnings of $8.10 per share, and guided fiscal second-quarter total revenue growth to 30% to 34% with cloud revenue growth of 65% to 71% in U.S. dollars and non-GAAP earnings of $1.85 to $1.93 per share. Chief executive officer Clay Magouyrk said OCI delivered 850 megawatts of AI capacity and more than 300,000 GPUs since the end of the fiscal fourth quarter, with GPU utilization reaching 97.9%, while Maxson said remaining performance obligations increased $26 billion from the fiscal fourth quarter and about half of RPO is expected to convert into sales over the next 36 months. Maxson reiterated fiscal 2027 CapEx of $90 billion to $95 billion and no more than $70 billion of net cash CapEx, and said she gave no timetable for positive free cash flow. Chief executive officer Mike Sicilia said SaaS revenues grew 10%, Fusion grew 14% and industry applications grew more than 20% in the fiscal first quarter, with customers running more than 2,300 AI agents in production, up 90% sequentially, and agent executions nearly doubling to more than 3.5 million.

Samsara (NYSE:IOT) has reached an annual recurring revenue milestone of over US$2.1 billion, driven by wider adoption of its AI-powered Connected Operations Platform, particularly among large enterprises and international customers. Management credits AI-driven products as a central factor in this growth. The milestone reinforces the company's recurring revenue model and early traction in AI, but uncertainties remain, including long sales cycles and the early stage of AI monetization. Investors should watch whether Samsara can sustain ARR contributions from large enterprise and international customers while maintaining GAAP profitability in coming quarters.

Veeva Systems announced that Regeneron and Biogen have adopted its AI-powered Vault CRM suite globally, and introduced Veeva Falcon Safety, a new agentic safety operations product for biopharma clients. These moves expand Veeva's AI-focused offerings across commercial and safety workflows in life sciences, reinforcing its position as a key provider of industry-specific cloud software. With a market cap of about $45.5 billion, Veeva is a large specialist in healthcare software, and these global commitments signal deeper integration of its AI tools into core biopharma operations, potentially increasing switching costs and making multi-year relationships more durable. The company plans a November 2026 rollout for Falcon Safety, and investors will watch for early adopters and quantified updates in upcoming earnings calls to gauge traction.

VeriPark, a global financial services technology provider, announced that Queensland Country Bank has selected its customer experience solutions as part of a major transformation program. The bank will implement VeriPark's VeriChannel digital banking platform, VeriTouch CRM platform, and VeriLoan loan origination system, which together support digital banking, onboarding, lending, and customer engagement. This initiative is part of a broader transformation that also includes Fiserv's Finxact core banking platform and Vision Next card management solution, creating a future-ready environment across core banking, cards, lending, CRM, and digital channels. The program aims to modernize platforms, reduce technology complexity, and deliver integrated member experiences while preserving the bank's community and member-owned focus. Queensland Country Bank's Chief Transformation Officer, Shawn Anderson, emphasized the importance of partnering with Fiserv and VeriPark to build foundations for better member experiences, and VeriPark's Chief Revenue Officer, David Dervish, expressed pride in helping the bank turn its transformation vision into tangible value.

Relativity, a legal data intelligence company, announced that RelativityOne, its extensible AI platform for legal work, now integrates with Microsoft Copilot through the Model Context Protocol (MCP), enabling legal teams to use natural language in Copilot to execute administrative reporting capabilities directly within the RelativityOne environment. According to the International Legal Technology Association's 2025 Legal Technology Survey, Microsoft Copilot is the most widely used generative AI tool in the industry, used by 68% of firms and 84% of the largest firms. The integration currently enables orchestration and reporting capabilities in Copilot Cowork, including standing up workspaces, organizing case data, and managing legal operations, while reporting capabilities such as analyzing workspace access and generating administrative reports are enabled in Copilot Chat, with orchestration support planned for Copilot Chat later this year. This integration is part of Relativity's broader strategy to expand RelativityOne to meet legal teams where they work, following recent moves like launching Relativity claiR in advanced access and integrating Gavel's Word capabilities into RelativityOne.

Tyler Technologies, a software company serving state and local governments, has raised its 2030 financial goals following a successful cloud transition. In its Q2 2026 investor letter, Andvari Associates highlighted that Tyler has met or exceeded its 2025 interim targets, shifted over 95% of new-client total contract value to SaaS, migrated roughly 5,000 hosted customers to AWS, and exited its last private data center on schedule. The company's remaining on-premise maintenance base offers a large conversion pool, with each maintenance-to-SaaS shift expected to lift recurring revenue by about 1.7 times before cross-sell or module expansion. Tyler's next phase, "Cloud Living," aims to reduce version complexity, lower support burden, and speed upgrades. As of August 28, 2026, Tyler's stock closed at $377.94, with a market capitalization of $15.48 billion.

The Chinese government has announced plans to elevate the logistics network to national infrastructure, with a target of reducing logistics costs to 13.1% of GDP by 2030. This initiative aims to improve logistics efficiency and reduce costs, positioning it as a national-level infrastructure development. Specific measures include improving transportation networks, consolidating logistics hubs, and leveraging digital technologies. The government expects these efforts to lower logistics costs and enhance overall economic efficiency.

Veeva Systems shares surged 17% in afternoon trading after the company reported second-quarter financial results that beat Wall Street expectations for revenue and adjusted earnings. The life sciences cloud software provider posted revenue of $928 million, up 17.6% year over year, surpassing the consensus estimate of $905.3 million, while adjusted earnings came in at $2.35 per share, above the projected $2.22. Adjusted operating income reached $415.9 million, ahead of the expected $394.8 million. The company also raised its full-year revenue guidance to $3.68 billion at the midpoint and increased its full-year adjusted earnings outlook to $9.21 per share, citing strong customer momentum in its Vault CRM platform and rapid adoption of its AI offering, Veeva Falcon. At $285.51 per share, the stock is up 30.1% year to date and trading near its 52-week high of $306.22.

CivilGrid, a civil design platform that consolidates subsurface and regulatory data for infrastructure projects, announced a $26 million Series A financing round led by Spark Capital, with participation from Energy Impact Partners, Afore Capital, A*, Ford Street Ventures, and SNR Ventures. The funding will accelerate national expansion and product development as the U.S. embarks on historic infrastructure investment. CivilGrid's platform helps utilities and engineering firms, including Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), Atmos Energy, Mark Thomas, and GHD, de-risk billions in annual project spend. PG&E reported savings of over $60 million in paving conflicts, a 40% reduction in field research, and up to four months faster project timelines since deploying the platform. The company aims to address the 200,000 utility strikes and $30 billion in annual costs caused by legacy data systems, positioning itself as a key player in the $2.2 trillion U.S. construction market.

Enterprise software and cybersecurity stocks rallied sharply on Thursday, driven by strong earnings and a shift in the AI narrative. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) surged over 6%, on track for its largest single-day gain since April 9, 2025, when it jumped 11.7%. The rally began after Salesforce and CrowdStrike reported better-than-expected second-quarter results, with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff declaring, "This nonsense of this SaaSpocalypse, I think it's time for it to stop." ServiceNow surged 9%, Workday rose nearly 4%, and Adobe and Autodesk each climbed 6%. Cybersecurity names led the gains, with CrowdStrike up 18%, Okta rocketing over 25%, and SailPoint surging nearly 14%. Palantir increased 4% as its Maven Smart System is on track to generate at least $1 billion in annual recurring revenue, while UiPath climbed nearly 9% ahead of its earnings report.

Veeva Systems announced that Biogen has committed to Veeva Vault CRM globally. The unified commercial platform is intended to help speed the delivery of medicines to patients. Tom Schwenger, president and CCO at Veeva, said Vault CRM will serve as the agentic commercial foundation for Biogen as it delivers medicines that transform patients' lives. Guy Hadari, senior vice president and global CIO at Biogen, said the companies share a deep commitment to customer experience and innovation, and Biogen is excited to expand its strategic partnership with Veeva by moving to Vault CRM. Vault CRM is part of the Vault CRM Suite, which includes the Agentic Call Report to generate Commercial Evidence.

Pro Inside Public Company Limited, or PIS, reported first-half 2026 net profit of 164 million baht, up 8% from the same period last year. Total revenue was 1.531 billion baht, up 6% from 1.439 billion baht. The company has a backlog of 6.096 billion baht, which will be recognised as revenue over the next three to four years. It targets 2026 revenue growth of 10 to 15% from the previous year, supported by public-sector investment megatrends in digital government, cloud first, smart security, and smart grid.

IBM's Maximo Application Suite for Government has achieved FedRAMP Moderate Authorization as a Software as a Service offering. The authorization allows IBM to provide Maximo as a secure, compliant SaaS option for U.S. federal agencies and other organizations that require federally validated security controls. This milestone positions IBM to pursue additional public sector and regulated market workloads that depend on FedRAMP Moderate standards for cloud-based asset management tools.

Guidewire Software has launched its Qusar release, introducing an Agentic Framework that lets insurers build, deploy, and manage AI agents across policy, claims, billing, and development workflows on Guidewire Cloud Platform. The new framework combines insurance-specific AI agents with tools that can accelerate coding and data work, positioning Guidewire as a deeper workflow partner embedded in insurers' day-to-day operations. The release reinforces the near-term catalyst around cloud and AI adoption, but also increases operational complexity, which may amplify existing execution risk if insurers are slow to roll out or fully use these new capabilities. Guidewire's narrative projects $2.2 billion revenue and $293.6 million earnings by 2029, requiring 16.4% yearly revenue growth and an earnings increase of about $133.8 million from $159.8 million today. The most pessimistic analysts already assumed revenue of about US$2.1 billion and earnings near US$257 million by 2029, yet still saw rising security and compliance costs as powerful enough to cap returns.

Calix, Inc. announced a grid monitoring solution on its AI-native Calix One platform, extending capabilities to utility providers. The solution combines the newly launched GigaPro GPR1011XH optical network terminal, AXOS-powered E-Series access appliances, and network operations tools on a standards-based passive optical network architecture. Building on insights from utility industry leaders Conexon and Irby Utilities, Calix is expanding trusted partnerships with more than 100 electric cooperatives, municipalities, and utility providers. The company highlighted that electric cooperatives own and maintain nearly 42 percent of U.S. electric distribution lines, and that its platform has enabled outcomes such as reducing OSS/BSS integration from 18 months to 10 weeks and turning up subscribers 83 percent faster.

Eli Lilly and Company has committed to Veeva Vault CRM globally. Vault CRM is part of the Vault CRM Suite of applications that provides the technology foundation for agentic commercial, a new commercial model leveraging AI to get the right medicines to more patients. Giuseppe Firenze, senior vice president at Lilly, said the move will help bring the company's breakthrough medicines to more patients. Veeva CEO Peter Gassner expressed pride in expanding the strategic work with Lilly as it rolls out Vault CRM globally.

Bentley Systems reported second-quarter revenue of $410.7 million, meeting Wall Street expectations with 12.8% year-on-year growth, while non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.35 beat analyst estimates by 9.8%. Annual recurring revenue reached $1.54 billion, up 11.4% from a year earlier, and billings rose 10.5% to $406.9 million. CEO Nicholas Cumins highlighted accelerating demand in public works, utilities, and especially mining, and said the company is prioritizing adoption of AI-driven engineering workflows before shifting to monetization, with new commercial models expected in 2027. The Power Line Systems business saw international revenues match its entire size at acquisition, and the Virtuoso platform for small and medium-sized businesses added over 600 new logos. Management also noted increased discretionary share repurchases and balance sheet capacity for acquisitions.

Toast, Inc. shares rose 6.7% after the company reported second-quarter results in early August 2026 showing higher revenue and net income than a year earlier, completed a US$648.33 million share repurchase program, and highlighted record customer growth alongside new AI and market expansion initiatives. The company deepened its ecosystem reach through BWH Hotels' endorsement of its POS platform across the U.S. and Canada and an expanded integration with Google's Ask Maps, including co-developing the Universal Commerce Protocol for Food. These moves position Toast at the center of emerging AI-driven food ordering standards, though the near-term catalyst still hinges on sustaining strong new location adds. The most bullish analysts were already assuming Toast could reach about US$11.8 billion in revenue and US$1.2 billion in earnings, and the AI and ordering expansion may reinforce their optimism or prompt a rethink of how much depends on tools like Toast IQ and Toast Advertising lifting ARPU.

Toast announced an expanded integration with Google that lets diners order directly from Toast restaurants through Ask Maps, a conversational AI feature in Google Maps. When a guest searches for a restaurant or specific food, Ask Maps can surface a Toast restaurant's menu and carry the request through to a completed order, turning discovery into demand with no extra work for operators. The experience is powered by Toast's co-development of the Universal Commerce Protocol for Food, an open standard defining how AI agents discover, order from, and check out with restaurants across Google surfaces like Search, Maps, and Gemini. Orders placed through Ask Maps flow through Toast's first-party ordering system, helping operators grow order volume without third-party commission fees. To drive early adoption, Toast is funding a promotional offer of $5 in Toast Cash for guests who place an order of $30 or more through Ask Maps, redeemable in the Toast Local app, with the feature expected to begin rolling out in late August.