Workday, Inc. is an on‑demand (cloud-based) financial management and human capital management software vendor. It was founded by David Duffield, founder and former CEO of ERP company PeopleSoft, and former PeopleSoft chief strategist Aneel Bhusri following Oracle’s hostile takeover of PeopleSoft in 2005. It targets the customers of rivals Oracle or SAP. In October 2012, it launched a successful initial public offering that valued the company at $9.5 billion.

Early history

Workday was founded in March 2005 and launched in November 2006.[8] Initially, it was funded by Duffield and venture capital firm Greylock Partners. In December 2008, Workday moved its headquarters from Walnut Creek, California to Pleasanton, California, where PeopleSoft, founder Duffield’s prior company, was located. Workday sells software and services using the SaaS model.[9][10]

On February 6, 2008, Workday announced that it had reached a definitive agreement to purchase Cape Clear Software[11] In May 2008, Workday signed a large contract with Flextronics to provide human capital management software services.[12] Other large, multinational companies that have publicly disclosed contracts or deployments of Workday includ e Aviva,[13] Chiquita Brands,[14] CAE Inc., Fairchild Semiconductor,[15] Rentokil Initial,[16] Thomson Reuters,[17] and Time Warner.

On April 29, 2009, Workday announced that it secured $75 million in funding led by New Enterprise Associates. Existing investors Greylock Partners and Workday CEO and co‑founder Dave Duffield also participated in the round.[19] On October 24, 2011, Workday announced $85 million in new funding, bringing total capital raised to $250 million. Investors in the latest round includ ed T. Rowe Price, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Janus, and Bezos Expeditions, the personal investment entity of Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos.[20]

The current CEO and Chairman of Workday is Aneel Bhusri, who is a partner with Greylock Partners and handled senior leadership positions earlier in his career at PeopleSoft.