Vista Equity Partners has agreed to acquire the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) business unit of identity and access management provider HID, PE Hub first reported. The unit provides digital trust and identity security tools for government, regulated and compliance-focused organizations, helping verify human and machine identities as they access secure systems.
The Austin-based business also validates connectivity across IT infrastructure, applications and AI agents that exchange sensitive information. It is involved in quantum-resilient cryptography, a relatively new security standard built to withstand quantum computers, which could otherwise rapidly break the encryption used by most digital certificates today. The broader category is called post-quantum cryptography, or PQC.
Vista's Foundation Fund will make the carve-out. The business will operate as a standalone company after the transaction closes, which is expected in the fourth quarter. Stephen Foster, managing director in Vista's Foundation Strategy, told PE Hub that identity security is about access and trust, and that the assets span humans, machines and AI agents. He said there has been an explosion in digital machine identities in recent years as more businesses deploy AI agents, a trend Vista expects to continue.
The unit comprises four products that issue and automate the management of certificates at scale for government and enterprise customers. Foster said it has built a large, loyal, blue-chip customer base, providing a durable foundation for a business Vista believes will continue to accelerate with dedicated resources and focus.
Source: PE Hub · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing