Okta, Inc. (OKTA): History, Ownership, Mission, How It Works & Makes Money

In a world where every breach is a multi-million-dollar headline, how do you defintely secure your organization's digital front door? Okta, Inc. (OKTA) has solidified its position as the independent identity partner, reporting a total revenue of $2.610 billion for fiscal year 2025, a 15% increase year-over-year, which reflects its critical role in the cybersecurity stack.

You need to know if the company whose mission is to accelerate a world where everyone can safely use any technology is executing on that promise, especially since their Remaining Performance Obligations (RPO)-a key indicator of future revenue-hit $4.215 billion. We'll break down the history of how they built this moat, what makes their business model so sticky, and why their transition to GAAP net income of $28 million in FY2025 signals a new phase of maturity.

Okta, Inc. (OKTA) History

You want to understand the bedrock of Okta, Inc. (OKTA) to gauge its future trajectory, and that means looking past the recent headlines to the core decisions that built this identity powerhouse. The story is one of a rapid, smart pivot early on, followed by aggressive, strategic acquisitions that culminated in a fiscal year 2025 revenue of $2.61 billion. That kind of growth doesn't happen by accident; it's a series of calculated moves.

Given Company's Founding Timeline

The company's genesis was rooted in a fundamental shift in enterprise IT: the move to the cloud. The founders saw that legacy identity management was defintely not built for the new reality of hundreds of cloud apps.

Year established

Okta, Inc. was established in January 2009, initially operating under the name SaaSure Inc..

Original location

The company was founded in San Francisco, California, a location key to tapping into the burgeoning cloud and SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) ecosystem..

Founding team members

The company was co-founded by two former Salesforce executives: Todd McKinnon (CEO) and Frederic Kerrest (COO/Executive Vice Chairman)..

Initial capital/funding

Okta secured initial seed funding of approximately $1.2 million shortly after its founding. This was quickly followed by a Series A round of $10 million in 2010, led by Andreessen Horowitz..

Given Company's Evolution Milestones

The company's history is a blueprint for scaling a cloud-native enterprise business. They moved from Single Sign-On (SSO) to a full-blown identity platform, which is why their total assets reached $9.44 billion by the end of fiscal year 2025..

Given Company's Transformative Moments

The biggest shifts for Okta weren't just funding rounds; they were strategic pivots that redefined the company's market position. You can't ignore the importance of the Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of Okta, Inc. (OKTA) in driving these decisions.

The first major moment was the swift pivot from their initial concept, 'SaaSure,' which was a network monitoring product, to cloud identity management. This agility, recognizing the bigger, more urgent problem of securing cloud access, saved the company early on..

The 2021 acquisition of Auth0 for $6.5 billion was a game-changer. It instantly made Okta a dual-engine company, securing both the workforce (employees) and the customer (external users), which is essential for a complete identity security fabric..

Most recently, the focus on the 'Secure Identity Commitment' and AI security in 2025 marks the next major transformation. This is a direct response to the evolving threat landscape and the rise of AI agents as new identities that need securing..

• Pivot from 'SaaSure' to cloud identity in 2010: Saved the company by addressing the true market need for cloud-based Single Sign-On (SSO)..
• Auth0 acquisition (2021): Consolidated the Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) market, adding a developer-first toolset..
• Achieving GAAP Net Income (2025): Okta reported a GAAP net income of $28 million for fiscal year 2025, a massive shift from the prior year's GAAP net loss of $355 million, signaling a new era of operational efficiency and scale..
• Acquisition of Axiom Security (2025): Expanded the portfolio into Privileged Access Management (PAM), eliminating standing privileges and securing critical infrastructure access..

Okta, Inc. (OKTA) Ownership Structure

Okta, Inc.'s ownership structure is dominated by institutional investors, a common pattern for high-growth technology companies, but it still maintains a significant insider stake that aligns leadership interests with shareholders.

This heavy institutional presence means that major investment firms like Vanguard Group Inc. and BlackRock, Inc. are the primary drivers of trading volume and hold the most sway in governance decisions.

Okta, Inc.'s Current Status

Okta, Inc. is a publicly held company, trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol OKTA.

The company completed its Initial Public Offering (IPO) in 2017, transitioning from a venture capital-backed entity to a publicly-traded one. Its market capitalization was approximately $16.1 billion as of August 2025, reflecting its scale in the identity and access management (IAM) space.

For the full fiscal year 2025, which ended January 31, 2025, the company reported total revenue of $2.610 billion, underscoring its financial maturity as a public entity. Honestly, that kind of revenue growth-up 15% year-over-year-is what institutional investors are looking for.

Okta, Inc.'s Ownership Breakdown

The company's ownership is highly concentrated among institutional funds, which is typical for a security software firm of this size. Insider ownership, while smaller, is still a key factor, showing that the founders and executives have skin in the game.

Here's the quick math: Institutional investors own the vast majority, controlling over 86% of the stock. This means a handful of large funds hold the voting power, so tracking their sentiment is defintely a smart move for any investor.

Okta, Inc.'s Leadership

The company is steered by a seasoned executive team, many of whom have deep roots in the enterprise software industry, including experience at companies like Salesforce. The leadership is a blend of co-founders and key operational hires.

• Todd McKinnon: Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). He co-founded the company in 2008 and continues to drive the long-term vision.
• Brett Tighe: Chief Financial Officer (CFO). He manages the company's financial strategy, which delivered a Non-GAAP operating income of $587 million in fiscal year 2025.
• Eric Kelleher: President and Chief Operating Officer (COO). He oversees key operational and customer experience functions, having been promoted to this role in 2025.
• Jon Addison: Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). He is responsible for all aspects of the company's revenue generation and go-to-market strategy.
• Larissa Schwartz: Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary. She handles legal compliance and corporate governance matters.
• David Bradbury: Chief Security Officer (CSO). His role is critical, given the company's focus on identity security and the need to protect customer data.

This team's focus on identity security and its core business is laid out clearly in the Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of Okta, Inc. (OKTA).

Okta, Inc. (OKTA) Mission and Values

Okta, Inc.'s core purpose transcends simply selling software; it centers on a vision to free every user and organization to safely use any technology, making identity the secure and seamless enabler of the digital world.

This commitment to security and innovation is not just a marketing line; it's reflected in the company's fiscal strength. For example, the company's focus on mission-critical security solutions helped drive total revenue to an estimated $2.610 billion in fiscal year 2025, a strong indicator that their core purpose aligns with market demand.

Okta, Inc.'s Core Purpose

The company's cultural DNA is built around a set of values that prioritize customer success and relentless innovation in the identity and access management (IAM) space (Identity and Access Management is the security discipline that ensures the right people and things have the right access to the right resources at the right times).

Here's the quick math: achieving a non-GAAP operating margin of 19% to 20% in FY2025 shows that this mission-driven focus on security and reliability is also a profitable business model.

Official mission statement

Okta, Inc.'s mission is to enable secure access for organizations through its identity and access management solutions, empowering organizations by ensuring their access to necessary technologies is secure.

• Secure Access: Provide robust security for technology use by businesses and individuals.
• IAM Specialization: Focus on Identity and Access Management as the central solution.
• Organizational Empowerment: Help organizations securely access the tech stack they need to innovate.

Vision statement

The company's long-term aspiration is a world where security is frictionless and universal, allowing for maximum technological adoption without compromise.

• Accelerate a world where everyone can safely use any technology.
• Be the leading platform for managing identity on the internet.
• Secure and Seamless Access: Enable users to easily access any application from any device.

To be fair, this vision is becoming more urgent, especially as securing AI agents is now a major part of the Identity Security Fabric category.

Okta, Inc. Core Values

These four values guide everything from product development to customer support, acting as the operational blueprint for the company's culture.

• Love our customers: Prioritize customer success, knowing it drives the company's success.
• Always secure. Always on: Commit to building a safer world and never jeopardizing the security promise.
• Build and own it: Act as builders and owners with a high sense of accountability for results.
• Drive what's next: Never stop evolving, moving with speed to defintely deliver the future of Identity.

The 'Always secure. Always on' value is backed by the Okta Secure Identity Commitment, a long-term initiative that includes a $50 million, five-year philanthropic pledge through Okta for Good to strengthen cybersecurity for nonprofits and expand cyber talent.

Okta, Inc. slogan/tagline

The company positions itself as the definitive leader in its market, using a clear, authoritative tagline that summarizes its primary value proposition.

• The World's Identity Company™.
• We secure Identity, so everyone is free to safely use any technology.

If you want to dig deeper into the numbers behind this mission, you should check out Breaking Down Okta, Inc. (OKTA) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

Okta, Inc. (OKTA) How It Works

Okta operates as a central nervous system for digital identities, providing a unified, cloud-native platform that securely connects the right people and the right technology at the right time. They make money by selling annual subscriptions for their two core product suites-Workforce Identity and Customer Identity-which brought in a total revenue of $2.610 billion in the fiscal year 2025.

Okta, Inc.'s Product/Service Portfolio

The company's dual-platform strategy is the core of its value proposition, addressing both internal employee access and external customer/partner access with a comprehensive identity security fabric.

Okta, Inc.'s Operational Framework

The company's operations are built on a scalable, cloud-native architecture that creates a single control plane for identity across hybrid and multi-cloud IT environments. This is how they deliver value to their 19,650 total customers.

• Subscription-Based Revenue: Okta operates on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, charging on a per-user, per-year basis for its products. Subscription revenue accounted for $2.556 billion of the FY 2025 total revenue.
• Land and Expand: The strategy is to initially sell a core product like SSO (the land) and then cross-sell additional products like OIG or OPA (the expand) to the existing customer base. This drives the dollar-based net retention rate, which was over 10% in FY 2025.
• Developer-Centric Acquisition: The 2021 acquisition of Auth0 was key, giving the company a strong, developer-first platform for Customer Identity. This dual-engine approach, with Workforce ACV representing 59% and Customer Identity ACV at 41% of the total, is a defintely smart way to capture the entire identity market.

Okta, Inc.'s Strategic Advantages

In the fiercely competitive Identity and Access Management (IAM) market, a few key differentiators allow Okta to maintain its growth and strong non-GAAP operating income of $587 million in fiscal 2025.

• Vendor Neutrality and Ecosystem: Unlike competitors tied to a single cloud provider, Okta's independence and its vast Okta Integration Network (OIN) of over 7,000 pre-built integrations minimize vendor lock-in for customers.
• Dual-Market Leadership: The combined strength of Workforce Identity Cloud and Customer Identity Cloud (Auth0) gives the company a complete offering that few competitors can match, securing both employees and customers from a single platform.
• AI-Driven Security Focus: The company is investing heavily in AI-driven security, with products like Identity Threat Protection with Okta AI and Auth0 for AI Agents, positioning identity as the control plane for securing the next generation of non-human, AI-driven identities.
• Strong Financial Foundation: With Remaining Performance Obligations (RPO) of $4.215 billion at the end of FY 2025, the company has a strong backlog of future revenue, showing customer commitment to its platform.

You can see a deeper dive into the company's financial metrics and valuation in Breaking Down Okta, Inc. (OKTA) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

Okta, Inc. (OKTA) How It Makes Money

Okta, Inc. primarily makes money by selling cloud-based subscription services for identity and access management (IAM), which is the digital gatekeeper for a company's employees and customers. This Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model provides a highly predictable, recurring revenue stream from its two core product groups: Workforce Identity Cloud and Customer Identity Cloud.

Okta, Inc.'s Revenue Breakdown

For the fiscal year 2025, which ended on January 31, 2025, Okta, Inc. reported total revenue of $2.610 billion. The vast majority of this revenue comes from recurring subscriptions, which is exactly what you want to see in a high-quality software business. Here's the quick math on where that money came from:

The $2.556 billion in Subscription Services revenue is the financial engine, growing at a solid 16% year-over-year in FY2025. The remaining $54 million from Professional Services, which includes implementation and training, is a low-margin necessity that is actually shrinking, which is a good sign; it means customers are adopting the product more easily or relying on partners. Honestly, you want that professional services percentage to stay low and get lower.

Business Economics

Okta, Inc.'s core business economics are built on the sticky, high-margin nature of identity security-once a company integrates Okta into its infrastructure, switching costs become extremely high. The pricing model is primarily seat-based (per user) for Workforce Identity and usage-based for Customer Identity, meaning revenue scales directly with a customer's employee count or application usage.

• High Gross Margin: The subscription business boasts a high gross margin, which is typical for SaaS. This means most of the subscription fee drops straight to the bottom line after covering cloud hosting and support.
• Strong Customer Expansion: The company is focused on landing large, high-value customers. By the end of FY2025, the number of customers with an Annual Contract Value (ACV) over $100,000 grew by more than 7% year-over-year, reaching 4,945 accounts.
• Net Retention: The dollar-based net retention rate (DBNRR) is a crucial metric, showing how much revenue from existing customers grew in a year. While it has moderated from its peak, the rate of 106% (as of Q2 FY2026, which is the most recent data) still indicates that existing customers are buying more products or adding more users than they are canceling.
• Improving Efficiency: The company is getting more efficient at acquiring and keeping those customers. Sales and marketing expenses dropped significantly to $965 million in FY2025, representing 37% of total revenue, down from 46% in the prior fiscal year. That's defintely a trend you want to see continue.

This focus on large, expanding accounts and improving sales efficiency is key to its long-term profitability. You can find more detail on their strategic focus in Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of Okta, Inc. (OKTA).

Okta, Inc.'s Financial Performance

The fiscal year 2025 marked a significant turning point for Okta, Inc., demonstrating a clear shift toward profitability and strong cash generation after years of prioritizing hyper-growth. This is the transition from a growth stock to a mature, profitable software enterprise.

• Total Revenue: Total revenue reached $2.610 billion in FY2025, representing a 15% increase year-over-year.
• GAAP Profitability: The company achieved a GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) net income of $28 million for the full year, a massive improvement from the $355 million GAAP net loss in the previous fiscal year.
• Non-GAAP Operating Income: Non-GAAP operating income, which excludes stock-based compensation and other non-cash items, was $587 million, resulting in a robust non-GAAP operating margin of 22% of total revenue. Here's the quick math: a 22% operating margin on a subscription-heavy business shows real scale.
• Cash Flow Generation: Cash flow from operations for FY2025 was exceptionally strong at $750 million. This operational cash flow is a tangible measure of the business's health and its ability to fund future growth without needing external capital.

The shift to generating $28 million in GAAP net income in FY2025 shows the business model works and has reached a sustainable scale. The market is now looking for this cash generation and margin expansion to continue as revenue growth moderates to a more sustainable, but still healthy, pace.

Okta, Inc. (OKTA) Market Position & Future Outlook

Okta is solidifying its position as the leading independent cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM) provider, pivoting from a high-growth-at-all-costs model to one that balances growth with significant profitability. The company's strategic focus on securing the emerging AI identity layer and expanding its Customer Identity Cloud (CIAM) is key to sustaining its competitive edge against integrated tech giants.

Competitive Landscape

The Identity and Access Management market remains highly competitive, with Okta facing off against both large platform vendors and specialized security firms. While Okta holds a strong position in the overall market, the bundled offerings from major competitors, especially Microsoft, present a constant challenge to its core Workforce Identity business.

Opportunities & Challenges

The global IAM market is projected to reach approximately $17.246 billion in 2025, providing a strong tailwind, but Okta must defintely execute on its product roadmap to capture this growth. The company is prioritizing margin discipline, which is helping profitability but may temper top-line growth compared to previous years.

Industry Position

Okta is recognized as a leader in the Access Management space, securing a Leader position in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for the ninth consecutive year, which shows its product execution is still strong. The company is a pure-play cloud identity provider, a critical factor for organizations adopting Zero Trust security models. For the fiscal year ended January 31, 2025, Okta reported total revenue of $2.61 billion, a 15% year-over-year increase, demonstrating its ability to grow even amid market headwinds and a security incident.

• Focus on securing non-human identities, like AI agents, positions Okta for future-proofing against new cyber threats.
• Record operating profitability and cash flow in FY2025 show a successful shift toward financial discipline.
• The company's total addressable market (TAM) is estimated at $80 billion, meaning its current Trailing Twelve Month (TTM) revenue of around $2.36 billion represents only about 3% of the total opportunity, so there's plenty of room to run.

The strategic acquisition of Auth0 continues to be a major growth engine, particularly in the faster-growing CIAM segment, which is less dominated by Microsoft. Honestly, that Auth0 purchase was a smart move to diversify the revenue stream. You can dive deeper into the institutional confidence in the company here: Exploring Okta, Inc. (OKTA) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?