Avalara team claims Overall and Spirit Awards at 9th annual Vista Equity Partners’ event

DURHAM, N.C., Sept. 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Avalara, Inc., the agentic AI leader in global tax and compliance, today announced that its team won both the Overall Award and the Spirit Award at Vista Equity Partners’ North America Agentic AI Hackathon held in Scottsdale, Arizona.

The event challenged participants to design and build complete, working applications powered by agentic AI orchestration. Working within the hackathon’s 24-hour window, the Avalara team developed a solution that streamlines VAT return filing for online sellers using a network of coordinated agents that compile, validate, reconcile, and file returns using deterministic tax logic, with mandatory human approval before submission. The approach is estimated to reduce filing costs by as much as 320 times compared with traditional manual processing.

The team earned first-place honors overall and was also recognized for its enthusiasm, collaboration, and teamwork during the intense 24-hour build competition. Avalara team members at the North America Agentic AI Hackathon included:

• Erol Guney, Architect, Returns Engineering
• Rachael Marshman, Director, Product Management
• Pawel Mieczkowski, Software Development Engineer
• Rui Rizzi, Senior Manager, Software Engineering
• John Tindell, Principal Engineer, Returns Engineering

“Winning both the Overall Award and the Spirit Award at Vista’s North America Agentic AI Hackathon is an incredible achievement and a testament to the ingenuity, collaboration, and determination that define the team at Avalara,” said Denis Gulsen, SVP, Engineering & Returns Managed Services at Avalara. “Our team demonstrated what’s possible when talented employees come together to solve hard problems quickly, creatively, and with customers in mind.”

Beyond the North America Agentic AI Hackathon, Avalara’s spirit of innovation was on display across the world, with team members also participating in the Vista Global Hackathon in Bangalore, India. Their involvement demonstrates the strength of Avalara’s collaborative, world-class talent around the globe.

About Avalara
Avalara is the agentic AI platform for global tax and compliance. For more than two decades, Avalara has built one of the most expansive libraries of tax content and integrations in the industry, processing more than 54 billion transactions annually and supporting millions of businesses worldwide. The company’s purpose-built AI agents automate end-to-end compliance with greater precision, from tax calculations and return filings to exemption certificate management and beyond. For more information, visit Avalara.com.

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SOURCE Avalara, Inc.