Enterprise identity company Okta announced a definitive agreement to acquire Azuqua — which is a no-code cloud-based business application integration and workflow automation company. Going forward, Okta and Azuqua will provide organizations with a neutral and independent control center for automating the business processes and the flow of identities between applications and services for employees, partners, and customers. The deal is expected to close in Okta’s fiscal first quarter.
Okta’s 2019 Businesses at Work Report points out that the average Okta customer has 83 cloud apps and 9% of customers have more than 200 cloud apps. As a result, organizations struggle to make all of their applications and technologies work together and manage them at scale. So IT organizations are forced to build and maintain custom integrations or rely on manual processes.
Okta invested early in automation for provisioning and deprovisioning apps and services while building its Lifecycle Management product. And with Azuqua, connectors are pre-built and maintained. And workflows can be defined without code, which enables companies to deliver connected digital experiences across the organization and deliver tailored and repeatable customer journeys.
By combining the unifying power of identity with the Okta Identity Cloud and Azuqua’s simple integration platform, customers will be able to automate more of their businesses processes and connect to even more apps. Plus IT teams will be able to use pre-built connectors and logic for creating streamlined processes and increasing operational speed. And product teams can embed this technology with their own applications alongside Okta’s core authentication and user management tools to build integrated customer experiences.
“Only a neutral, independent platform like the Okta Identity Cloud has the capacity to ensure that every app in an organization is tightly integrated, so businesses can optimize productivity and deliver delightful customer experiences. Identity is the unifying component that can make all of these technologies interact seamlessly and securely. Identity will power the next wave of movement to best-in-breed technology,” said Okta co-founder and COO Frederic Kerrest in a statement. “Azuqua’s power to connect applications will multiply the benefits of The Okta Integration Network for Okta’s customers, enabling them to unlock data, create seamless business processes and eliminate cloud silos. We look forward to bringing on the Azuqua team to further our vision to enable any organization to use any technology.”
Azuqua was founded in 2013 and quickly became known for pioneering cloud-based integration and automation. The Azuqua team also has decades of experience building enterprise technology products coming from companies such as Microsoft, Tableau, VMware, Telstra, and IBM.
Azuqua founder and chief product officer Nikhil Hasija will be joining Okta’s engineering team to help lead the company’s workflow automation strategy starting with the integration of Azuqua’s workflow offering into Okta’s Lifecycle Management product.
“PlanGrid is used on more than 1.5 million construction projects, and teams around the world rely on our software to collaborate and increase productivity,” added Tracy Young, the head of PlanGrid at Autodesk. “Okta and Azuqua play an integral role in connecting the people and technology that brings PlanGrid into field workers’ daily workflow. Azuqua helps us break down data silos and Okta provides unprecedented security. Together they will become an industry standard, and deliver the scale our customers demand.”
According to Fortune, Okta is spending $52.5 million in cash for Azuqua. This figure was revealed while the company reported its earnings on Thursday. Okta’s chief executive Todd McKinnon said that the acquisition would not be material to revenues for the quarter. However, the acquisition will “have a huge impact over time.”
For the quarter Okta reported revenues of $399 million for its 2019 fiscal year. This is up 56% year-over-year. But Okta has not reported a profit yet.
Prior to the acquisition, Azuqua raised about $16 million at a post-money valuation of $72 million according to Pitchbook. Azuqua’s founding CTO Craig Unger recently left the company last year to start a company called HyperProof.
