A California-based public tech company will acquire a Greater Cincinnati startup in a deal worth more than half-a-billion dollars — a massive exit that comes amid a historic fundraising year for the region.
Workday Inc. has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Mason-based Vndly, a provider of cloud-based workforce and vendor management technology, for approximately $510 million. The deal is expected to close before Jan. 31, 2022.
It’s the region’s largest startup exit, said Pete Blackshaw, CEO of startup catalyst group Cintrifuse, which was one of Vndly’s earliest investors. Mason’s Assurex Health, a biotech company, sold to Myriad Genetics in 2016 for more than $350 million, including earn outs. It’s been a red-hot year overall as Greater Cincinnati startups have raised more than $600 million in venture capital in 2021.
Workday provides companies with finance and HR applications. With Vndly, Workday can provide a unified workforce solution so organizations can manage all types of workers — salaried, hourly, contingent, and outsourced — and insight into costs, workforce planning needs and compliance.
Given increasing workforce demands, it’s a service that’s increasingly important, Pete Schlampp, chief strategy officer for Workday, said. Accelerated by the demands of the Covid-19 pandemic, organizations are having to adjust their definition of the workforce and examine how to support it in new ways.
As part of the agreement, Workday will continue to partner with and invest in Vndly’s network to deliver capabilities to customers. In addition, Vndly will continue to support and integrate with third party HR, finance, IT and legal systems.
Founded in 2017 and based initially at Over-the-Rhine’s Union Hall, Vndly originally offered an AI-powered tool for companies to better manage vendors and automate processes previously handled by multiple employees throughout a firm.
It grew into a cloud-based vendor management systems provider that helps companies navigate their entire non-employee lifecycle, from hiring to training to payment and offboarding.
The company is one of Greater Cincinnati’s best-funded startups, per Courier research. In May 2020, Vndly added $8.5 million to its $35 million Series B led by New York’s Insight Partners and has raised nearly $57.4 million overall.
At last count, Vndly employed 145.
Shashank Saxena, Vndly co-founder and CEO — and a former Kroger executive — said joining Workday will allow the company to provide its customers more value. The deal offers “greater visibility, collaboration and oversight to needs and opportunities,” he said.
“We’ve seen the value of true cloud-based technologies in helping organizations adapt and evolve to a more complex workforce composition,” Saxena said in a release.
Taft is serving as Vndly’s legal adviser, and Orrick is serving as legal adviser to Workday. BofA Securities is serving as financial adviser to Workday.
Blackshaw said Workday will keep the Cincinnati office and will likely expand headcount in the coming months.
“It’s big news for Vndly. It’s huge news for our region,” he said.