Dive Brief:
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Okta filed S-1 paperwork for a $100 million IPO this week, the latest in a line of tech companies working to go public.
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The San Francisco-based company focuses on the cloud identity management space. More specifically, Okta makes tools that allow businesses to manage employee access of software and devices and provides users a single sign-on for a variety of cloud services. According to the S-1, Okta currently has more than 2 million users. Its closest competitors are OneLogin and Ping Identity.
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Okta revenue grew from $41.0 million in fiscal 2015 to $85.9 million in fiscal 2016. But it also reported net losses of $59.1 million for fiscal 2015 and $76.3 million for fiscal 2016, according to the S-1 filing.
Dive Insight:
With a stronger economy in place, investors appear to be less wary of potentially overvalued tech companies than they have been over the last few years, even if those companies have yet to show a profit. At the same time, Wall Street is also growing more comfortable with native cloud, subscription-based companies.
Recently, reports surfaced Cloudera Inc. is planning to go public; Snapchat parent Snap Inc. raised $3.9 billion this month; and enterprise software company MuleSoft Inc. is prepping for its March 16 IPO. New York-based Yext, which helps businesses keep information listed on services like Yelp and Google Maps current, also filed for an IPO this week.
There is a lot of promise surround Okta. The company helps customers solve an important business problem — identity and access management. That’s made the service popular, with strong potential for further growth.
"Okta's rapid growth proves the demand for accurately and securely authenticating employees as they access corporate resources," said Patrick Salyer, CEO of Gigya."The market is heading for even more expansion as organizations realize the importance of extending identity and access management to their customers — where they often need to manage millions of identities rather than just thousands."
