Workato goes large on comprehensive connectivity to serve end-to-end enterprise automation

The Bottom Line: Connection focus keeps pace with global expansion plans and enterprise use of “best-of-breed” solutions

Recognizing and responding to the need to connect existing technology estates makes for a tempting proposition for enterprise execs keen to maximize the value of their investments to date. Workato can point to success with its 1,000+ connectors as evidence it can deliver. Each connection enables new combinations with which to innovate to value through automation.

Workato’s expansion into new markets, with new technologies and languages to tackle, will inevitably drive its requirement to come up with more connectors, but so does a swell of enterprises preferring to go with “best-of-breed” solutions rather than one-platform-fits-all approaches.

Railsdata acquisition paves way for even more connectors

Integration and workflow automation platform Workato is responding to what it sees as growing enterprise demand for connection capabilities with its acquisition of connectivity specialist Railsdata.

Workato already offers more than 1,000 connectors to applications, databases, and devices, providing the glue with which enterprises can connect and integrate their existing systems to deliver end-to-end outcomes with automation. Workato is banking on taking advantage of a maturing market for automation. With the addition of India-based Railsdata, the target is now a market-leading 10,000 connectors, which it expects to achieve in the next 18 months.

CEO Vijay Tella said: “Most companies are automating tasks or orchestrating individual processes, but some companies are unlocking the awesome potential of transformation by automating processes end-to-end across the enterprise.”

Get ready for a third wave of automation—closely aligned to OneOffice™

Workato believes it is succeeding because it focuses on this emerging new wave of automation, closely aligned to the cross-silo end-to-end needs of HFS Research’s OneOffice™.

Recent HFS Research data (supported by Blue Prism) found 90% of the 200 Global 2000 enterprises we surveyed had raised the priority of automation in the last 18 months, and those making the most effective progress were targeting digital transformation as their #1 automation priority.

Tella describes this as the third wave of automation, innovation, and sees it as being built on a foundation of orchestration and connectivity. For Workato, that means using low-code/no-code to enable the business to orchestrate end-to-end workflows, empowering business teams to collaborate at scale with IT, providing a platform with ready-to-go pre-built automations for key actions like lead conversion, using AI/ML for rapid adaptation and redefinition of processes, and infusing processes with intelligence—all operating on a software-as-a-service model.

Series E funding will accelerate Workato’s third-wave roadmap

Workato’s integration focus offers a single low-code platform to replace the variety of integration and automation tools enterprises have otherwise had to deploy at the data process, API, and UX levels.

The company announced a new Series E raise of $200 million on a valuation of $5.7 billion, making it HFS Research’s second-most valuable Hot Vendor pick to date, led only by Celonis.

Workato will use the raise to accelerate its “third-wave” roadmap and further expand in the US, EMEA, and APAC. There will be more support for regional languages and more regional data centers in APAC, following the model it applied when it acquired $110 million in series D funding nine months ago. At that time, it focused on doubling down on European success.

Europe also gets a new VP and GM, EMEA, in the shape of ex-Blue Prism VP Robert Ekstrom.

Workato is aware that eyebrows may be raised by its second and very large round of funding within the year, especially as it still had access to $160 million from previous rounds. It points to changes in the automation market in the last 12 months, a period of notable IPOs, for example, that of UiPath, and acquisitions such as the proposed purchase of Blue Prism. Workato has experienced rapid acceleration and doubled its revenue and headcount in that same period.

It now has more than 11,000 customers, including Stitch Fix, Gitlab, NYU, Nokia, Lucid Motors, Broadcom, and Toast.

Read the HFS Research take on how TFG Transfracht applied Workato to deliver rapid adaptability in the business ecosystem here.