Opkey Secures $47M in Funding for AI-Powered ERP Testing Platform

Opkey, a platform that uses AI to automate the testing of ERP software, has raised $47 million in Series B funding. This demonstrates the increasing use of AI in enterprise IT.

Companies are trying out ChatGPT and other services to help employees write memos, answer questions, and do a lot more. That being said, one of the clearest signs of how popular

AI is becoming in enterprise IT is how often it shows up in the everyday apps that businesses use. This morning, a startup that exemplifies that axiom announced funding, which shows how quickly businesses are adopting AI.

Opkey has made an AI platform that can help businesses test their finance, HR, and other enterprise resource planning (ERP) software all the time.

This is great news for the startup: it has secured a Series B round of $47 million in funding thanks to partnerships with KPMG, PwC, and more than 200 large businesses.

PeakSpan Capital is leading the round, which also includes backers from past and current investors such as UST Global, Verica, Vertical, and India’s YouNest.

This Series B, based in Dublin, CA, is taking a big step up. Oh, no! Before this, the business had only raised $12 million. The startup isn’t saying how much it’s worth.

While Opkey’s platform might not be the most visible part of an enterprise’s IT stack, it fills a significant market gap that is essential to how businesses run. New business services are now built on the foundations of cloud architecture and SaaS. Older companies undergoing a digital transformation are also heavily utilizing them.

They may be simpler to set up, faster, cheaper, and easier to use, but they also come with several issues, such as the potential for bugs or inconsistencies in the software to bring down entire networks. This is where Opkey steps in.

Avinash Tiwari and Lalit Jain, two childhood friends of Pankaj Goel, helped him start the company. All three have worked in the ERP field for a long time, working for big companies like Adobe and Oracle.

During their tenure, they acquired skills in software testing and witnessed the dire consequences of improper implementation. When ERP systems work together, they don’t usually work separately. If one ERP system doesn’t work right or conflicts with another, the whole ERP stack can crash.

“New versions of cloud apps are always coming out, which wasn’t possible with old software,” Goel said in an interview. “That feature breaks features that are already there.”

A company might usually connect seven or eight ERP systems, based on what he knows. If the ecosystem changes in any way, businesses find themselves trapped in a never-ending testing cycle.

AI-based automation can effectively address common issues such as testing and data management. This has also been realized by companies that produce cybersecurity and DevOps software.

Opkey and ERP platforms monitor updates, integrations, and end users’ interaction with new features. Opkey currently works with several packages and platforms, including Oracle, Workday, Coupa, Veeva, Salesforce, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, UKG, and Trackwise.

Sanket Merchant, a PeakSpan partner, led the investment. He thinks that because of the way IT is moving, there will continue to be a very strong flow of business interest in services like Opkey’s.

Uncertain Impact on Leapwork

It’s unclear if that will prevent Leapwork and Katalon from competing. Another question is whether larger ERP companies might try to enter this market.

He cited data showing that both small businesses and large multinational corporations spend $73 billion annually on ERP software for tasks such as accounting, billing, employee management, software deployment, and more.

After that, these ERP apps can depend on up to 52 other apps for their functionality. Automated testing is critical for ensuring that the investment performs as expected. A failed SAP deployment or Workday migration can have a significant impact on a company’s revenue and branding.