WorkOS — Startup Profile
Developer APIs that make any app enterprise-ready with SSO, SCIM, audit logs, and auth — now powering AI agents.
HQ: San Francisco, CA, USA | Founded: 2019 | Funding: ~$198M | Website: https://workos.com
About
WorkOS is a San Francisco-based developer infrastructure company founded in 2019 by Michael Grinich, previously co-founder of Nylas and an engineer at Dropbox. Its API platform lets any B2B SaaS product add enterprise-grade features — Single Sign-On (SAML/OIDC), Directory Sync (SCIM), Audit Logs, fine-grained authorization, User Management/AuthKit, and bot protection — in minutes rather than months. The company is often called 'the Stripe for enterprise-ready features.' As of 2026 WorkOS serves 1,000+ paying customers, including OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, Cursor, Perplexity, Replit, Vercel, Sierra, Baseten, Fal, Synthesia, Temporal, Gamma, Clay, and Exa. It processes billions of API requests per month with five-nines (99.999%) uptime claims. Products span AuthKit (hosted login UI), Enterprise SSO, Directory Sync, Audit Logs, Radar (bot/fraud), Vault (encryption), Pipes (OAuth integrations), MCP Auth, auth.md (agent registration), Airlock (intent-based access control), and Atlas (AI coworker). WorkOS has made four acquisitions: Modulz/Radix (2022), JumpWire (Jan 2024), Warrant/Forerunner Labs FGA (Apr 2024), and reached unicorn status with its March 2026 Series C.
The Take
WorkOS turned the 'boring' enterprise features every B2B SaaS eventually needs — SSO, SCIM, audit logs, RBAC — into a single developer API platform, and rode the AI coding wave to $2B. Founded 2019 by ex-Nylas CEO Michael Grinich, it hit $30M ARR by October 2025 with only ~95 employees, then raised $100M Series C from Meritech and Sapphire at a $2B post in March 2026 (up from $525M in 2022). Its customer roster reads like a Who's Who of AI labs: OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, Cursor, Perplexity, Replit, Vercel. The thesis is sharp: as AI compresses software lifecycles and agents act autonomously, every action still must be authenticated, authorized, and auditable — trust becomes the constraint. WorkOS acquired Modulz (Radix UI), JumpWire, Warrant (FGA/Zanzibar), and Forerunner Labs, and is shipping agentic-identity products (MCP Auth, auth.md, Airlock). Capital efficiency is exceptional; the risk is competing with Okta/Auth0 and Clerk in a consolidating auth market.
Key Metrics
- Latest Valuation: $2B (post-money, Series C)
- Last Round: $100M Series C, led by Meritech + Sapphire, March 2, 2026
- Total Funding: ~$198M disclosed across 4 rounds
- ARR: $30M (October 2025, per Sacra)
- Paying Customers: 1,000+ (early 2025, per Sacra)
- Employees: ~123-145
- Founded: 2019
- CEO: Michael Grinich (Founder)
Funding Rounds
- Round: $3M (disclosed) (2020-03-17) — Lightspeed Venture Partners (Nakul Mandan)
- Round: $15M (2021-03-10) — Lachy Groom (solo capitalist); participants: Lightspeed, Abstract, Tuesday Capital, Audacious, Uncorrelated Ventures, Elad Gil, Nat Friedman, Scott Belsky, Brianne Kimmel
- Round: $80M (2022-06-01) — Greenoaks; participation from Lachy Groom, Lightspeed, Abstract, plus angels Guillermo Rauch, Michael Ovitz, Mathilde Collin, Howie Liu, Jack Altman, Christian Reber
- Round: $100M (2026-03-02) — Meritech Capital + Sapphire Ventures (co-led); participation: Audacious, Craft, Abstract, Greenoaks and others
Key People
- Michael Grinich
- Alon Levi
- Kathleen Chung
- Noelle Festa
- Saifuddin Gunja
- Jeff Fiddler
Key Competitors
- Auth0 (Okta) —
- Okta (Workforce Identity) —
- Clerk —
- Stytch (Twilio) —
- Microsoft Entra ID —
Timeline Highlights
- 2026-10: auth.md agent registration spec demos
- 2026-08-04: Introduces Atlas (AI coworker)
- 2026-07-01: WorkOS Management MCP Server launch week
- 2026-06-02: Acquired Unplugged: Boris Cherny interview
- 2026-03-02: $100M Series C at $2B valuation — unicorn
- 2025-12: Launches Pipes (OAuth integrations)
- 2025: Launches MCP Auth and RBAC
- 2025-10: $30M ARR milestone
- 2025-06: $20M ARR milestone
- 2024-04-23: Acquires Warrant (Forerunner Labs) for FGA
- 2024-01: Acquires JumpWire
- 2022-06-01: $80M Series B led by Greenoaks + Modulz acquisition
- 2021-03-10: $15M Series A led by Lachy Groom
- 2020-03: Public launch + $3M seed
- 2019: WorkOS founded
Recent News
- WorkOS raises $100M Series C, hits $2B valuation (2026-03-02)
- WorkOS raises $80M Series B, acquires Modulz (Radix) (2022-06-01)
- WorkOS acquires Warrant for Fine-Grained Authorization (2024-04-23)
- WorkOS reaches $30M ARR with ~95 employees (October 2025) (2025-10-01)
- Introducing Atlas, your AI coworker (2026-08-04)
- Michael Grinich: AI agents are a new consumer class — auth.md proposal (2026-10-12)
Similar Startups
- Resend — The developer email platform, built by developers
- Datadog — The AI-powered observability and security platform for cloud applications
- Pydantic — The end-to-end AI engineering stack
- Oxide Computer — The rack-scale cloud computer that brings hyperscaler architecture to data centers enterprises own
- Nexthop AI — Open and customized networking for AI data centers
Browse: Home | Blog | About | All Startups A-Z | View full profile on StartupWiki