Stockholm-based Sana announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Workday in a transaction valued at $1.1 billion, marking both a major milestone for the company and its arrival as a unicorn. Sana has built AI-native products such as Sana Learn and Sana Agents, which serve more than a million employees worldwide by automating tasks, generating learning content, and creating proactive digital agents. Becoming part of Workday, the enterprise AI platform for managing people and finance, will allow Sana to scale its technology to reach 75 million users while continuing to develop its own products.
Sana is an AI company developing enterprise knowledge tools, including AI-powered learning and digital agent platforms. Its products help employees access information, automate workflows, and generate content. Sana’s technology has been used by over one million employees across multiple industries.
“Our focus has always been on creating intuitive AI tools that improve how people learn and work,” said Joel Hellermark, founder and CEO of Sana. “I’m excited to bring these tools to 75 million Workday users and partner with Workday’s iconic team to launch a new era of superintelligence for work.”
Workday is an enterprise software company that provides AI-powered applications for managing human resources, finance, and operational processes. Its platform integrates HR and financial data, offering analytics, workflow automation, and tools to support organizational decision-making. Workday serves a broad range of organizations, from medium-sized businesses to large enterprises.
“Sana’s team, AI-native approach, and beautiful design perfectly align with our vision to reimagine the future of work,” said Gerrit Kazmaier, president, product and technology, Workday. “This will make Workday the new front door for work, delivering a proactive, personalized, and intelligent experience that unlocks unmatched AI capabilities for the workplace.”
Since its founding in 2016, Sana has been at the forefront of AI for work, developing intuitive tools that elevate humans with AI. Sana’s core products, Sana Learn and Sana Agents, have already served over one million users across hundreds of enterprises.
In addition to powering a new Workday experience, Sana will continue to develop Sana Learn and Sana Agents. As part of Workday, Sana will be able to accelerate its growth and deliver even more innovation to its customers at scale.
With Sana, Workday will create the work experience of the future, where enterprise knowledge, data and actions converge into one. This will help people get their work done and empower employees with AI agents that can:
Find answers, information and files by instantly searching across a company’s most critical data sources, including Workday, Google Drive, SharePoint, and Office365.
Act proactively by anticipating needs, summarizing insights, and assisting with projects.
Create presentations, documents, and dashboards, even full learning courses, based on company knowledge.
Automate repetitive tasks and routine work by executing workflows end-to-end.
Leveraging Workday’s unique data and context around people and money—as well as a rich ecosystem of builders and partners—the employee experience will become personalized and proactive, better anticipating employee needs based on their role, team, and projects. For example, hiring managers will be able to generate tailored dashboards to monitor their live recruitment pipeline, automate the end-to-end performance review process, and receive proactive suggestions on onboarding new hires based on real-time performance data.
Sana Agents extends enterprise AI beyond basic search and chat. With the platform’s no-code agent builder, users can create AI agents to automate repetitive tasks and act proactively on their behalf. These agents streamline workflows while helping ensure that every action remains secure and compliant with company policies through the Workday Agent System of Record.
Existing customers are realizing significant tangible value from Sana Agents across various use cases. For instance, a leading American manufacturer achieved up to 95% time savings; a multinational industrial tech company achieved 90% productivity gains; and a global law firm saw over 60% time savings and 200% increased efficiency.
Sana is also a pioneer in applying AI to learning. Its AI-native learning platform, Sana Learn, combines learning management, content creation, course generation, and personalized tutoring through specialized learning agents. Sana Learn has already enabled hundreds of customers across industries to accelerate learning. For example, a global electric vehicle manufacturer boosted learning engagement by 275%; a leading European installation distributor with 7,500 employees cut course creation time from four months to four days; and a global fintech company went from three weeks to three hours for content creation.
Sana Learn will complement Workday Learning with hyper-personalized skill building capabilities and AI-native content creation at scale. Enhanced by AI-driven internal mobility with Workday Talent Optimization and HiredScore, this comprehensive learning suite will help employees build skills faster and help enable organizations to scale personalized learning experiences, supporting employee reskilling and upskilling initiatives.
Under the terms of the definitive agreement, Workday will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Sana for approximately $1.1 billion.
The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of Workday’s fiscal year 2026, ending January 31, 2026, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. Allen & Company LLC is serving as financial advisor to Workday and Orrick is serving as its legal advisor. DLA Piper is serving as Sana’s legal advisor.
Click here to read more IPO/M&A news.
Read the orginal article: https://arcticstartup.com/sana-acquired-by-workday/
