saml
(6)
The Enterprise Deal Hiding Behind the Login Screen
A beloved email app taught Michael Grinich that users and buyers are not always the same people. WorkOS sells the unglamorous identity features that can decide whether a promising SaaS product gets through the enterprise door.
LoginRadius
LoginRadius is a Vancouver-headquartered customer identity and access management (CIAM) company that gives businesses a single platform to register, authenticate, and manage their end users at scale. Founded in 2012 as a social-login tool, it grew into a full identity-as-a-service suite covering single sign-on, passwordless login, passkeys, adaptive MFA, and no-code identity orchestration - with configurable data residency across 35+ regions to satisfy regulated industries. The platform is used by thousands of brands to secure large consumer bases while keeping login experiences fast and compliant.
ZITADEL
ZITADEL is an open-source identity and access management platform that gives developers enterprise-grade authentication and authorization without vendor lock-in. Built in Go with an API-first design and native multi-tenancy, it supports OAuth2, OpenID Connect, SAML, SCIM, passkeys, MFA and self-service flows, and can run as a self-hosted deployment or as a managed cloud service. Founded in Switzerland in 2019 and now remote-first, ZITADEL aims to make identity a foundational piece of infrastructure - like a database or a web server - rather than a barrier to shipping software.
Cirrus Identity
Cirrus Identity is an Oakland-based software company that runs managed, cloud-hosted identity and access management for higher education, research institutions, non-profits and healthcare. Founded in 2013 by former UC Berkeley identity staff, it acts as a proxy and bridge between commercial identity providers (Entra ID, Okta, Duo, Google) and the multilateral research-and-education federations - InCommon, eduGAIN, the Canadian Access Federation and GakuNin - that campuses depend on but that most commercial IdPs do not support. More than 200 universities use it to retire aging Shibboleth deployments, let alumni and applicants log in with social accounts, and standardize authentication without rebuilding every application.
SecureAuth
SecureAuth is an Irvine, California identity security company that has spent two decades trying to answer one stubborn question: is the person (or machine, or AI agent) on the other end of a login really who they claim to be? Founded in 2005, it built a name on risk-based and passwordless authentication, then doubled down on AI with its Arculix platform, continuous facial assurance, and a 'microperimeter' that extends Zero Trust controls to AI agents. Today it serves both workforce (IAM) and customer (CIAM) use cases for 250+ enterprises across regulated industries, protecting more than 250 million identities.
Strata Identity
Strata Identity is a Boulder, Colorado cybersecurity company that pioneered the category of Identity Orchestration. Its Maverics platform lets enterprises connect any application to any identity provider - on-premises or cloud - without rewriting code, so they can migrate off legacy systems, survive identity outages, and govern access for both humans and AI agents. Founded in 2019 by SAML co-author Eric Olden and two fellow identity veterans, Strata raised more than $40 million and was acquired by data-security firm Rubrik in June 2026.