Sequoia Capital Leads Series C Financing as Okta Disrupts $6 Billion Enterprise Identity Management Market
San Francisco, CA – December 04, 2012 — Okta today announced that it has closed $25 million in Series C funding, led by new investor Sequoia Capital. Sequoia joins existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners, Khosla Ventures and FLOODGATE. The investment serves as a strong endorsement of the company's vision to redefine identity management in the modern enterprise.
Okta's cloud-native service enables IT to securely manage access across any application, person or device and provides directory services, single sign-on, authentication, provisioning and workflow capabilities. It seamlessly integrates with on-premises directories and identity systems, as well as thousands of on-premises, cloud-based and mobile applications, to provide secure access anywhere, anytime and from any device. Today, enterprises today use Okta to increase security and employee productivity, as well as lower IT costs and improve compliance.
"CIOs have spent years and millions of dollars deploying and maintaining on-premises identity management software with marginal success at best," said Douglas Leone, general partner at Sequoia Capital, whose other investments include Aruba, Meraki, RingCentral and ServiceNow. "Okta has an opportunity to not only address head-on the challenges of today's cloud, mobile and increasingly interconnected world, but to become an essential platform for CIOs to manage access across all of their users, applications and devices. This is a transformative company and we couldn't be more bullish on the opportunity and the company's ability to execute."
Building on a breakout 2011, the company has continued to deliver dramatic levels of innovation and growth on multiple fronts in 2012. Major milestones include:
Thriving Ecosystem of Market-Leading SaaS ISVs: In September, Okta announced a robust partnership with Workday, introducing a unique cloud-native, HR-driven identity lifecycle management solution. Okta has developed relationships with more than 2,000 cloud applications, all of which come pre-integrated in the Okta Application Network, and counts leading enterprise SaaS companies such as Jive, Lithium and SuccessFactors as customers.
Near Perfect Availability, Completion of Rigorous SOC 2 Audit: Okta maintained more than 99.99 percent availability in 2012 and achieved a number of rigorous security and availability milestones, such as completion of the SOC II Type 2 audit across all five trust principles.
Tremendous Employee Growth, Key Executive Additions to Support Enterprise Momentum: Okta has more than tripled headcount in 2012, including a number of executives: Adam Aarons as SVP of Worldwide Sales, Hector Aguilar as VP of Engineering, David Baker as CSO and, most recently, Kara Wilson as the company's first CMO. Wilson comes to Okta from SAP Cloud, where she served as CMO, and has held executive positions at a number of market-leading enterprise technology companies, including SuccessFactors and Cisco Systems.
Continued Product Innovation: Okta today announced a broad set of new functionality for cloud, mobile and on-premises environments to allow enterprises to manage seamless, secure access across any person, application or device, as well as its vision for an industry-first Enterprise Identity Network. (See separate release, "Okta Unveils Bold Vision for Future of Enterprise Identity.")
"Organizations are struggling to securely manage access across traditional networks and company boundaries – and are now realizing that an identity layer that bridges the gap between cloud, mobile and on-premises solutions is essential," said Todd McKinnon, CEO, Okta. "We're building the next core business platform to meet these needs and manage identity in the modern enterprise. Our growth, customer impact and this newest round of financing validate that we're well on our way to disrupting a $6 billion market and delivering a new standard that will sit at the center of business software for enterprises worldwide."
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