UPDATED 17:26 EDT / JULY 19 2017

INFRA

Workato raises $10M to simplify application integration

Self-service data integration vendor Workato Inc. has raised $10 million in early-stage financing and released a major update to its Workato Turing platform.

The new Series A funding round, announced Tuesday, was led by Storm Ventures LLC with additional investment from Salesforce Ventures and Workday Ventures and brings the company’s total funding to $16 million. The initial investment was put up by the founders, which include several veterans of integration pioneer Tibco Software Inc.

Workato says it’s tackling the inherent complexity of enterprise integrations, which have a track record of being complex, lengthy and hard to use. It’s targeting, in particular, so-called “systems of engagement” applications, many of which are delivered as software as a service, that are part of the average user’s daily toolkit. Those applications now define user experience, making enterprise integration a bucket of ice water by comparison, said Workato Chief Executive Vijay Tella.

“Traditional integration tools have been plumbing-oriented – connecting on the back end,” Tella said. “Integrations must be accessible to everybody in the company. You can’t just queue everything up in IT [information technology].”

Workato’s value is deep integration experience combined with a digital-native mindset, the CEO said. “People who use consumer applications don’t think about how to create their own workflows; it’s a matter of faith. Facebook is a utility; integration is not.”

The new Turing platform uses machine learning and pre-built integration “recipes” that plug into the nearly 60 sources the company supports, ranging from Facebook Inc. to Salesforce.com Inc. customer relationship management, Atlassian Corp. PLC’s Confluence and Workday Inc.’s human capital management. Most integrations can be completed using drag-and-drop metaphors with the machine learning component providing suggestions based upon preferences shown by the user and others in the organization. The platform also has prebuilt integrations with IBM Watson and Salesforce.com’s Einstein for intelligent recommendations.

Workato says 78 percent of its customers are productive with its product during the first week. It claims more than 21,000 customers. Tella said the new funding round will be used primarily for sales and market development.

Image: Pixabay

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