Guidewire Acquires Hyperexponential For $1.7 Billion
Guidewire buys AI-powered underwriting software firm, expects to add to ARR growth. The deal is part of Guidewire's strategy to lead the transformation to agentic underwriting.
Original reporting · saastr.com
Original: “5 Interesting Learnings from Guidewire at $1.24 Billion in ARR: A $1.7 Billion AI Acquisition, Its Lowest Churn Ever, and 10x ARR for a 25-Year-Old System of Record”
Read “5 Interesting Learnings from Guidewire at $1.24 Billion in ARR: A $1.7 Billion AI…” at SaaStr →
How this was written. Voyager Commercial wrote this article with a language model from SaaStr’s reporting (model: @cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast); it describes that reporting rather than adding to it. The original, linked above, is the full story.
Key points from SaaStr’s report
- Guidewire acquired hyperexponential for $1.7 billion to expand its AI capabilities.
- The deal is expected to add at least 650 basis points to fiscal 2027 ARR growth.
- Guidewire's fiscal 2026 closed with ARR of $1,237 million, up 19% in constant currency.
Guidewire, a provider of core systems to property and casualty insurers, has announced the acquisition of hyperexponential, a firm that makes AI-powered underwriting and pricing software, according to SaaStr.
Guidewire sells core systems to property and casualty insurers, including policy, billing, and claims. Its buyers are some of the slowest-moving in B2B.
The company's fiscal 2026 closed with ARR of $1,237 million, up 19% in constant currency, and fully ramped ARR of $1,573 million, up 22%. Total revenue was $1,475.4 million, up 23%.
Guidewire's stock closed at $168.86 on October 16, with a market cap of about $13.85B. The company plans to fund the deal with $1 billion in new term loans, plus its own cash.
The acquisition of hyperexponential is expected to add at least 650 basis points to fiscal 2027 ARR growth. Guidewire didn’t disclose hyperexponential's revenue, but the deal should add about $80 million of ARR.
Guidewire has accepted slower reported revenue for years to move customers to cloud. In Q4, total revenue grew only 15% to $411.1 million, while subscription and support grew 32%.
Guidewire sells AI as separate products on top of the core. The company shipped the Qusar release with an Agentic Framework for insurers to build, deploy, and manage AI agents on the platform.
Questions and answers
What is hyperexponential?
Hyperexponential makes AI-powered underwriting and pricing software for commercial P&C insurers.
How will Guidewire fund the deal?
Guidewire plans to fund the deal with $1 billion in new term loans, plus its own cash.
What is Guidewire's ARR growth expectation for fiscal 2027?
Guidewire guides revenue up 16% and expects the acquisition to add at least 650 basis points to fiscal 2027 ARR growth.
