Okta

(NASDAQ: OKTA · $227.08 ▼ 2.2%) Okta, Inc. is a San Francisco-headquartered software company that provides cloud-based identity and access management (IAM) solutions. Its stated aim is to secure identity so that people can safely use any technology, and it builds products meant to help businesses and developers improve security and efficiency. IAM software controls who can sign in to which applications and data, which makes it a core part of an organisation's security setup as more work moves to cloud services.

The portfolio is split into Workforce Identity, which covers employees, contractors and partners, and Customer Identity, which secures consumer-facing apps and portals. Alongside the Okta Platform, the company offers the Auth0 Platform for low-friction authentication, as well as tools for verifying the identity of AI agents, setting their permissions and auditing their automated actions. Taken together, these lines let one vendor handle internal access governance as well as customer sign-in, two areas that organisations often buy from separate suppliers.

Okta says its customers include two-thirds of the Fortune 100, major government agencies and thousands of other organisations, and the case studies it publishes feature Hitachi, FedEx, Booking.com, Mars and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. Buyers in this category are usually security and IT leaders who want to bring access under one system and cut down on password-based risk. The company has offices in 15 countries and offers dedicated local support to customers.

The company was founded in 2009 and helped establish the Identity-as-a-Service category. Identity-as-a-Service delivers functions such as single sign-on and multi-factor authentication as a cloud subscription rather than as software run on an organisation's own servers. Beyond its products, it runs Okta for Good through the 1% Pledge, sets sustainability targets and invests in identity, security and privacy startups through Okta Ventures.