Auth0 Identity-as-a-Service Solution Secures $2.4 Million in Early Funding Led by Bessemer Venture Partners

SEATTLE, Sep 17, 2014 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Auth0, an identity-as-a-service solution, announced today it has secured $2.4 million in seed funds led by Bessemer Venture Partners with participation from K9 Ventures, Portland Seed Fund and NXTP Labs. The company’s service is already in use in 124 countries by more than 8,000 developers and IT managers in both small and large enterprises in the software, financial, media, security and consumer sectors. Some of Auth0’s larger customers include Schneider Electric, the global specialist in energy management, MindJet, the leading innovation management and collaborative project management platform, Allegion, the leading provider of security solutions for homes and businesses around the world, and Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection, Berkshire Hathaway's travel insurance arm.

“We’re a company founded by developers for developers. We created Auth0 because we are identity and security experts that are frustrated with the unnecessary complexity of integrating identity management into apps and APIs,” said Jon Gelsey, Chief Executive Officer at Auth0. “Since our launch, we have seen tremendous traction and Bessemer’s investment allows us to leverage its market-leading enterprise security and SaaS expertise to continue to grow the business.”

Auth0 removes the complexity of authentication and authorization for developers. Instead of spending days or weeks writing complex and unfamiliar code, many identity scenarios can be solved with just a few lines of code to invoke Auth0’s service. Developers can implement highly secure and robust solutions, without requiring deep expertise in the complexities of authentication and authorization.

“In the same way Twilio democratized access to SMS and voice communications, Auth0 developed an identity service to eliminate the growing complexity of authentication and authorization for developers,” said David Cowan, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. “Auth0 has the dream team in authentication security, which is why developers are so quickly adopting their API as the de facto way to do logins."

The Auth0 solution allows any application or API running on any device, OS or software stack to authenticate with any identity provider. From the simplest app in the store to the most sophisticated enterprise software solution, Auth0 enables individual developers and IT managers to quickly and easily implement complex identity authentication scenarios.

“We took a strategic, calculated bet on Auth0,” said James Gardner, SVP of Product at Mindjet. “By using Auth0's sophisticated identity infrastructure -- rather than building it ourselves -- we were able to assign two, full-time software engineers to developments directly related to Mindjet's core value proposition, which resulted in higher revenue while saving us a great deal of money.”

The company also announced it has hired Gianpaolo Carraro as Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Mr. Carraro joins the company from Microsoft where he held executive roles in sales, marketing, and developer evangelism for the past twelve years. Auth0 will use the new funds to hire additional developers and add more features to its service. They will also invest in sales and marketing to build brand awareness and grow its customer base.