Okta

Okta was founded in January 2009 in San Francisco as 'SaaSure Inc.' by Todd McKinnon and Frederic (Freddy) Kerrest, who had worked together at Salesforce — McKinnon as SVP of Engineering/Development (2003–2009, after earlier engineering roles at PeopleSoft, 1995–2003) and Kerrest in enterprise sales and business development (2002–2007). The pair set out to build cloud-based identity and access management software — single sign-on, directory and multi-factor authentication — for the emerging world of SaaS applications, at a time when most enterprise IT still relied on on-premises identity systems like Active Directory. The company renamed itself Okta in 2010, after 'okta,' the meteorological unit used to measure cloud cover, a nod to its cloud-first orientation.

Okta raised a $10 million Series A in 2010 led by Andreessen Horowitz, followed by a $16.5 million Series B in August 2011 co-led by new investors Greylock Partners and Khosla Ventures (joined by existing backers a16z and Floodgate) — marking Greylock's first involvement with the company, with partner Aneel Bhusri joining the board. Subsequent private financings (per Okta's 2017 S-1) included a $27.5 million round in August 2013 and a $75 million round in May 2014, with Sequoia Capital emerging as a lead investor alongside continuing participation from a16z, Greylock and Khosla; a final $75 million round closed between July and September 2015, valuing the company at approximately $1.2 billion and making it a 'unicorn.' Okta went public on the Nasdaq (ticker OKTA) on April 7, 2017, pricing its IPO at $17.00 per share (above its initial range) to raise roughly $187 million; shares surged about 38–39% on their first day of trading. By January 2019, Okta reported surpassing 100 million registered end users on its platform.

The company's most transformative move came in March 2021, when it announced a definitive agreement to acquire Auth0 — a Bellevue, Washington-based developer-focused customer identity (CIAM) platform founded in 2013 — in an all-stock deal valued at approximately $6.5 billion, described by press as the culmination of an '8-year courtship' between the two companies. The deal closed in May 2021, roughly doubling Okta's addressable market by combining its workforce-identity strength with Auth0's developer/CIAM base, though integrating the two platforms and go-to-market motions proved a multi-year undertaking. Okta followed with smaller tuck-in acquisitions: atSpoke (workplace helpdesk/ITSM, ~$90 million, August 2021), Spera Security (identity security posture management, reportedly $100–130 million, December 2023), and, in the AI-agent era, Axiom Security (privileged access management for cloud/SaaS/database environments, completed September 2025) and a signed agreement to acquire Permiso Security (AI/machine-identity threat detection, reportedly ~$200 million, announced July 30, 2026).

Business model

B2B enterprise SaaS sold primarily via annual/multi-year subscription contracts to IT, security and developer teams at organizations of all sizes, distributed through direct sales, channel partners and self-service (for Auth0 developer signups).

Recurring subscription revenue (the large majority of total revenue) for access to the Okta Identity Cloud and Auth0 platforms, plus a smaller amount of professional services and implementation revenue. FY2026 (ended Jan 31, 2026) total revenue was $2.919 billion, up ~12% year-over-year, with a Dollar-Based Net Retention Rate of 106%.