INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Auth0, a startup based in Seattle, has been helping developers with a set of APIs to build authentication into their applications for the
It raised a fair bit of money along the way to help extend that mission, and today the company announced a $55 million Series D.
This round
was led by led by Sapphire Ventures with help from World Innovation Lab, and existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Trinity Ventures,
Meritech Capital and K9 Ventures
Today investment brings the total raised to $110 million
The company did not want to share its valuation.
CEO Eugenio Pace said the investment should help them expand further internationally
In fact, one of the investors, World Innovation Lab, is based in Japan and should help with their presence there
&Japan is an important market for us and they should help explain to us how the market works there,& he said.
The company offers an easy way
for developers to build in authentication services into their applications, also known as Identification as a Service (IDaaS)
It a lot like Stripe for payments or Twilio for messaging
Instead of building the authentication layer from scratch, they simply add a few lines of code and can take advantage of the services
available on the Auth0 platform.
That platform includes a range of service such as single-sign on, two-factor identification, passwordless
log-on and breached password detection.
They have a free tier, which doesn&t even require a credit card, and pay tiers based on the types of
users — regular versus enterprise — along with the number of users
They also charge based on machine-to-machine authentication
Pace reports they have 3500 paying customers and tens of thousands of users on the free tier.
All of that has added up to a pretty decent
While Pace would not share specific numbers, he did indicate the company doubled its revenue last year and expected to do so again this
year.
With a cadence of getting funding every year for the last three years, Pace says this round may mark the end of that fundraising cycle
He wasn&t ready to commit to the idea of an IPO, saying that is likely a couple of years away, but he says the company is close to
profitability.
With the new influx of money, the company does plan to expand its workforce as moves into markets across the world
They currently have 300 employees, but within a year he expects to be between 400 and 450 worldwide.
The company last round was a $30
million Series C last June led by Meritech Capital Partners.
