A software company built in Colombo sold for $600 million. Meet WSO2
EQT acquired WSO2 in 2024. 80% of its 780 engineers are Sri Lankan, and its headquarters is still Colombo.
- $600M
- acquisition by EQT in 2024
- 700+
- enterprise clients
- 70+
- countries
A software company built in Colombo sold for $600 million. 80% of its 780 engineers are Sri Lankan.
What WSO2 builds
WSO2 builds API management, integration and identity software. That is the same space as Apigee (acquired by Google), MuleSoft (acquired by Salesforce for $6.5B) and Okta.
Customers include Samsung, AT&T and Axa. 700+ enterprise clients. 70+ countries. 18 offices worldwide. All headquartered in Colombo.
In 2024, EQT Private Capital Asia acquired WSO2 for $600 million.
The founder
Behind it is Dr. Sanjiva Weerawarana. He spent eight years at IBM Research in New York, where he coauthored web service standards that power the modern internet. He was elected to the IBM Academy of Technology, is a member of the Apache Software Foundation and created the Ballerina programming language.
He left all of that and came back to Colombo in 2005 to build WSO2.
$600 million. Built, led and sold by Sri Lankan talent. The largest enterprise software exit in the country's history.
Sources
Live on LinkedIn
The original post, with current reactions and comments.
