VNDLY further cemented itself as one of the top-funded Cincinnati tech startups this week when it received its third investment in less than a year, this time from Okta Ventures.
The exact amount of the investment was not disclosed, but VNDLY CEO Shashank Saxena told the Business Courier that it was a minority investment that occurred as a by-product of the companies' existing partnership.
VNDLY was founded in 2017 by Saxena, former head of corporate strategy and integration for Kroger, and Narayana Surabhi, former general manager at Cincinnati IT firm CSC. The startup offers a SaaS workforce management system that helps companies with processes like hiring, training, payment and offboarding.
Okta Ventures is the investment arm of San Francisco-based Okta, which provides secure single sign-on and provisioning technology. The partnership with VNDLY allows the two companies to further integrate their technologies. Roughly 25% of VNDLY's customers also use Okta's services.
"This joining of forces gives the non-employee labor market a singular, innovative option for secure sourcing, engaging and managing external workforces," the two companies said in a statement.
"What excites me most about this partnership is that it started with a pain point experienced by our mutual customers," Saxena added. "Our clients have been looking for ways to extend provisioning into their external workforces, and this partnership increases our ability to provide a modern technology stack that supports each company's digital transformation."
In December 2019, VNDLY closed on a $35 million Series B round of funding. Last month, it topped off that round with an additional $8.5 million investment from Seattle-based Madrona Venture Group. At the time, VNDLY said that it would use the fresh funding to continue its global expansion and product development.
Not including the investment from Okta, VNDLY has raised around $57.5 million in venture funding.
