C1 – formerly known as ConductorOne — to be acquired by Workday

I’ve been tracking on C1 since their early days. And with the wealth of cybersecurity and identity talent in our region, I had high hopes. But I certainly didn’t expect those hopes to pay off so rapidly. But the world of AI and agents has certainly sped up the timeline on a number of fronts. So it should come as little surprise that C1 has reached an agreement to be acquired by Workday.

“Six years ago – almost to the day – Paul Querna and I bet that identity would be the most important control point for companies in the future,” said cofounder and CEO Alex Bovee in a blog post. “AI has laid bare that the bet was correct. And today that bet gets a bigger stage.”

Most organizations manage employee access across hundreds of applications through manual service tickets, spreadsheets, and periodic reviews as workers join, move, and leave. The rapid adoption of AI agents has accelerated this challenge: C1.ai’s research shows that 95% of large U.S. companies already run autonomous agents, yet according to Deloitte’s State of AI research, only 21% report having a mature way to govern them. Organizations need to know who and what has access, why they have it, and when to remove it. Without those controls, AI agents can become lawless, creating security and compliance risks across the business.

Every new hire, job change, and exit is a Workday event. Workday already governs the people, money, and agents at the heart of the enterprise. With C1.ai, Workday will become the identity governance layer for people, money, and agents. Every employee and agent using Workday can have the right access to the apps, data, and systems they need, from the day they join to the day they leave, and every move in between.

“Today’s companies run on a combined workforce of people and AI agents,” said Gerrit Kazmaier, president, product and technology, Workday. “With C1.ai, we’ll help secure that workforce by managing and enforcing exactly who—and what—has access to connected apps and systems, giving each person and agent the right access at the right moment to make work easier, safer, and more compliant.”

Not only does this mark a successful exit for a Portland startup — their HQ is listed as San Francisco but they have a significant concentration of C1’s employees here — it also benefits Oregon Venture Fund who had been an early investor in the company.

The transaction is expected to close early next year. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

For more information, see the joint press release and the C1 blog post.