Okta expands footprint in India, plans to grow workforce by 50% in the region

Identity and access management company Okta announced on Thursday that it is expanding its India operations, committing substantial investment to increase its R&D capabilities and physical footprint in its Bengaluru campus. 

On the sidelines of this announcement, TechCircle interviewed Stephanie Barnett,  VP Presales & Interim GM APJ, Okta. Speaking about the expansion, Barnett said, “When you look at our overall growth as a company, our first wave was predominantly driven by our home market in the US. As we set our sights on becoming a $5 billion and eventually a $10 billion company, international expansion becomes a key growth lever. India is central to that vision, both for talent and for market opportunity.”

Okta has 700 employees in India. The company plans to increase the headcount in the country by over 50% in 2026, which will catapult India as the largest base for Okta outside of the US. Barnett said that India is an incredible hub for engineering and product development talent. It aligns perfectly with our Okta AI roadmap and where it is headed as a company.

“For us, the focus is really on product innovation and product engineering. The teams we’re building in India will help us develop capabilities across several key areas like policy recommendations, AI governance analysis, and identity threat protection.

As organizations adopt AI, their attack surface expands significantly, so strong threat-protection capabilities become essential. Okta’s engineering and product teams will be working on those solutions. Additionally, the company is also building teams dedicated to developing protections for non-human (autonomous agents) identities and strengthening the core capabilities of its identity security platform.

India’s evolving AI agent landscape

India’s AI agent market is projected to reach USD 3.5–5 billion by 2030, fuelled by adoption across sectors such as banking, healthcare, retail, and IT, a report by Grand View Research has found. This is one of the highest adoption rates in the world, thereby also creating a fertile ground for threat actors to thrive, especially in the absence of proper guardrails. 

“Customers tell us that AI agents are incredibly powerful—they act autonomously on our behalf, help us be more productive, and free us to do more meaningful work. But at the same time, without proper security, it’s almost like letting a threat actor loose inside your organisation. If you don’t secure these agents, don’t implement the right guardrails, and take an identity-first security approach, you are giving an employee badge to an AI agent that can access systems across your organisation, sometimes even the crown jewels,” said Barnett.

To service this requirement, Barnett said that Okta is rapidly expanding its team, both from a go-to-market and an engineering perspective. A key pillar of this strategy is the Global Innovation Center in Bangalore which will serve both as a core product-building hub and one of Okta’s fastest-growing markets for identity.

“To stay close to customers, Okta follows a partner-first strategy, and our India business will grow through our partner ecosystem. Expanding our presence in Bangalore is crucial – over 75% of IT spending in India flows through indirect partner channels. We are committed to this approach through key partners such as Sonata Software, Softcell Technologies, ACPL Systems, and 22by7 Solutions, as well as through our broader technology alliances across the region with Google Cloud and AWS,” she added. 

Evolving identity management ecosystem

The identity security industry is witnessing significant consolidation, with large tech and consulting firms acquiring specialised companies to strengthen their cybersecurity offerings. For example, Accenture’s acquisition of IAMConcepts and Hexaware’s purchase of CyberSolve in late 2025 brought deep expertise in user and machine identity security, AI-driven controls, and critical infrastructure protection. Okta, too, has acquired AuthO and Axiom Security, firms having expertise in this field.

These deals reflect a broader trend of consolidation as major players seek to offer integrated solutions in a rapidly expanding market. With the rise of AI, complex hybrid IT environments, and increasingly stringent regulatory requirements, organisations are looking for unified, end-to-end identity security platforms rather than fragmented point solutions. 

“I think it simply confirms Okta’s approach: identity security is central to any organization’s security strategy. These acquisitions highlight that large vendors recognize its critical importance, and our strategy has been correct from day one. Identity security remains the foundation for all security approaches,” Barnett said.