ForgeRock ($FORG) https://www.forgerock.com is a digital identity platform that just went public two days ago. FORG focuses on enterprise-level customers (defined as clients with more than 100K ARR).
From the S-1 https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1543916/000119312521… : ForgeRock is a modern digital identity platform transforming the way enterprises secure, manage, and govern the identities of customers, employees and partners, APIs, microservices, devices, and Internet of Things (IoT). Organizations adopt the ForgeRock Identity Platform as their digital identity system of record to enhance data security and sovereignty as well as improve performance. ForgeRock’s identity platform provides a full suite of identity management, access management, identity governance, and artificial intelligence (AI)-powered autonomous identity solutions.
Their vision is to have a world where you don’t have to ever log in. https://www.forgerock.com/blog/forgerock-now-public-company
Even though this is a recent IPO the company is 11 years old. ForgeRock was first founded in 2010 in Norway by a group of former Sun Microsystems employees after Sun was acquired by Oracle Corporation. After the acquisition, the software was scheduled for phase-out in favor of Oracle’s in-house product, so the founders started their own company to fork the code and continue developing Sun’s software.
They just recently (2019) switched to the SaaS model, and they experience acceleration in their growth and in all other metrics since doing so.
CEO gets a decent ranking on glassdoor and employees seem to like working there. https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/ForgeRock-Reviews-E954290…
But not so well on https://www.comparably.com/companies/forgerock
Here’s a direct comparison between Okta and ForgeRock on Gartner https://www.gartner.com/reviews/market/access-management/com…
The management team has several years of combined experience https://www.forgerock.com/about-us/leadership
Fran Rosch, the CEO, has 20+ years of experience building and leading high-performing enterprise security and identity management teams. He joined ForgeRock from Symantec, where he was EVP & GM of the company’s $2B+ Consumer Digital Safety segment, a continuation of his success as senior vice president of Authentication and Identity Management Services.
The original founder of Sun Microsystems remains as an advisor to the board https://www.forgerock.com/about-us/investors
Since going SaaS in 2019 the revenue growth has been accelerating nicely:
2019 $104.5 million
2020 $127.6 million 22% YoY
2021 $84.8 million (first half) 53% YoY
Since going SaaS the subscription revenue represented 96% of total revenue in 2020 and 97% for the first half of 2021.
Gross margin remains strong as shown below:
2019 84%
2020 83%
2021 83%(first half)
Dollar-based net retention rate (DBNRR) is not the best but improving:
2019 105%
2020 112%
2021 113%
Despite investing for growth, FORG has driven improved operating leverage:
2019 (35)% or (32%) for Non-GAAP
2020 (25)% or (20%) for Non-GAAP
2021 (11)% or (7%) for Non-GAAP
FORG defines a large customer as a customer with $100,000 or greater ARR. They have 353 large customers as of June 30, 2021, which represents a 17% increase compared to June 30, 2020. These 353 customers in aggregate represented 88% of the total ARR as of June 30, 2021, and no single customer accounted for more than 3% of the total ARR as of June 30, 2021.
I currently don’t have a position but I wanted to learn more and since several people held Okta, your input would be greatly appreciated.
Pavlos