Well-funded, in no hurry to go public: Saviynt COO

CHENNAI: Cloud-first identity security company Saviynt, founded about 14 years ago in the US, is in no hurry to hit the capital market.

Clocking over $200 million in annual recurring revenue with over 500 customers driving its growth, Saviynt is upbeat about India, where it has made “notable” investments.

Shankar Ganapathy, global COO, Saviynt, in a recent interaction with DTNext, said “more than 75 per cent of the company is owned by us, (the founding team and the management), and just a small portion is owned by outside investors. This allows us to be able to set our own direction, based on longer term rather than short term financial considerations, which has also made us competitive in the market. We have not declared any plans to go public at this point in time. It’s certainly an option that we may look at in the future. But, generally speaking, we are well-funded.”

It raised $205 mn in debt from AB Private Credit Investors’ Tech Capital Solutions group in January 2023, when Saviynt founder Sachin Nayyar returned as CEO. Saviynt’s fund-raise has touched $270 million, after a $130 million debt raise in 2021. Growing at a compounded annual rate of 76 per cent over the last five years, it has a significant presence in India with over 500 employees, especially in Bengaluru, which serves as its second headquarters.

Historically, Saviynt has been focused on the Fortune 1,000 customers. “We really hardened our technology with the most demanding customers on earth. That really helped us gain wider acceptance. We also work with mid-sized companies (1,000 employees or more),” he said adding “our retention rates, (ability to retain and grow our customers), is industry best-in-class, over 96 per cent gross retention.”

Asked about the pandemic impact, Ganapathy said Saviynt got the impetus to expand its offering. “We realised we have a much bigger identity challenge to solve, which is really remote workers. And, it spurred us to build a product which is focused not just on remote workers, but on anything that’s non contingent (contractors, suppliers, trading partners).” By the time the pandemic was over and people started returning to the workplace, Saviynt had built its external identity management capability.

It has also launched Saviynt University to address the cyber security talent gap. It seeks to offer free training and certification programmes with a goal of reaching 100,000 people, initially focusing on India. “Today, nearly half the company of Saviynt is based in India, where we see two interesting opportunities: the first is the India domestic market, and more broadly, the SAARC market. Over the last decade or so, many global companies who are our customers have established their centres for excellence for identity in India.”

Saviynt has expanded into the broader identity security landscape, viewing it as a $205 billion market potential. “We are seeing the opportunity to accelerate, not slow down the growth. This is driven by two factors: first is the pervasive entry of AI into everything that is happening in the ecosystem. Governing the workforce is one thing, governing AI and the impact of AI on business is a whole different animal. So we see that as a significant opportunity for, not just for us, but for the entire market to grow,” Ganapathy said.