Insight Partners' Devin Parekh explains why the firm diversifies instead of betting big on OpenAI and Anthropic

Devin Parekh, who has co-run investment firm Insight Partners for 26 years, gave a rare candid interview at TechCrunch's StrictlyVC event in New York, explaining why the $90 billion firm maintains a diversified approach while many venture capital firms concentrate heavily on leading AI labs.

Parekh noted that OpenAI and Anthropic together raised roughly half of all venture capital dollars in the first half of this year, and some funds are pitching investors on putting 35-40% of an entire fund into just one of the two companies. Insight holds stakes in both OpenAI and Anthropic, but only at later stages, after the firm is off the board and no longer driving governance. At earlier stages, Insight maintains information-sharing restrictions and avoids investing in directly competing companies.

Concentration versus diversification

Parekh acknowledged that a concentrated position — say, a quarter of the fund in Anthropic — would currently boost returns, but said long-term data favors diversification. Insight is on its 13th fund, so it thinks in terms of the next ten funds rather than one. Over the past two years, the firm has returned more than $20 billion to its limited partners through strategic sales and IPOs.

Parekh also discussed losing a deal for legal-tech company Legora to General Catalyst, and a success story with security company Armis, which Insight initially lost to Sequoia but later bought out entirely before selling it to ServiceNow this year for $7 billion. He said Insight remains cautious about physical AI and robotics, viewing the sector as still too early-stage, and expects more major AI company IPOs over the next 18 months.