Apttus Corporation, doing business as Conga, is an American

business-to-business Business-to-business (B2B or, in some countries, BtoB) is a situation where one business makes a commercial transaction with another. This typically occurs when: * A business is sourcing materials for their production process for output (e.g., a ...

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...

provider specializing in

business process automation Business process automation (BPA), also known as business automation or digital transformation, is the technology-enabled automation of complex business processes. It can streamline a business for simplicity, achieve digital transformation, increa ...

and

Contract Lifecycle Management Contract lifecycle management (CLM) is the proactive, methodical management of a contract from initiation through award, compliance and renewal. Implementing CLM can lead to significant improvements in cost savings and efficiency. Understanding a ...

(CLM) tools. The company provides what it calls “middle office” solutions, utilizing

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...

to optimize various financial and commercial functions, such as quote-to-cash, revenue management, and

e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain manageme ...

management. Apttus’ software was originally developed to leverage the Salesforce

customer relationship management Customer relationship management (CRM) is a process in which a business or other organization administers its interactions with customers, typically using data analysis to study large amounts of information. CRM systems compile data from a ra ...

platform, but it has since been integrated with

Microsoft Azure Microsoft Azure, often referred to as Azure ( , ), is a cloud computing platform operated by Microsoft for application management via around the world-distributed data centers. Microsoft Azure has multiple capabilities such as software as a ...

and

IBM Cloud IBM Cloud, (formerly known as Bluemix) is a set of cloud computing services for business offered by the information technology company IBM. Services As of 2021, IBM Cloud contains more than 170 services including compute, storage, networki ...

as well. In May 2020, Apttus merged with

contract lifecycle management Contract lifecycle management (CLM) is the proactive, methodical management of a contract from initiation through award, compliance and renewal. Implementing CLM can lead to significant improvements in cost savings and efficiency. Understanding a ...

(CLM) specialist ''Conga'' and took its name.

History

Apttus (the former name of Conga) was founded in 2006 by Kirk Krappe, Neehar Giri, and Kent Perkocha. The three co-founders reportedly developed the company from ideas written down on napkins in a laundry room. Krappe served as the company's first CEO, with Giri as Chief Solutions Officer and Perkocha as Chief Customer Officer. The company was

bootstrapped In general, bootstrapping usually refers to a self-starting process that is supposed to continue or grow without external input. Etymology Tall boots may have a tab, loop or handle at the top known as a bootstrap, allowing one to use fingers ...

and took no outside funding until 2013, when it raised $37 million in Series A financing from a group of investors including K1 Capital, ICONIQ, and Salesforce. By the time of its 2018 buyout, Apttus had received a total of $404 million in investment capital from five rounds of fundraising, which gave the company a valuation of approximately $1.3 billion, as of September 2016. Despite publicly discussing the likelihood of an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

in 2016, the company never went public before being acquired by Thoma Bravo. The 2015 acquisition of Apttus rival SteelBrick by Salesforce, an early Apttus investor, was widely blamed for Apttus’ inability to complete an IPO or find a buyer at more favorable terms. Thoma Bravo took a majority stake in Apttus in September 2018. The cost of the purchase was not revealed. In September 2018, private equity firm

Thoma Bravo Thoma Bravo, LP, is an American private equity and growth capital firm with offices in San Francisco, Chicago and Miami. It is known for being particularly active in acquiring software companies and has over $114 billion in assets under manage ...

purchased a majority stake in Apttus. This resulted in significant turnover in the executive ranks, as Thoma Bravo installed a new

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

, CFO, Chief Legal Officer,

Chief People Officer A chief human resources officer (CHRO) or chief people officer (CPO) is a corporate officer who oversees all aspects of human resource management and industrial relations policies, practices and operations for an organization. Similar job titles i ...

, Vice President of Finance, and Corporate Controller by the end of 2018. In May 2020, Apttus bought

(CLM) specialist ''Conga'' and adopted its name for trading. The deal was valued at $715 million USD. In August 2021, Conga acquired ''Contract Wrangler'', Further Expanding Its CLM Footprint.

Controversy

In July 2018, Krappe departed Apttus with little warning, a move later reported to have been driven by accusations of

sexual assault Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, which ...

and misrepresentations of the company's financial performance. The allegations, which became public on November 1, 2018 with the publication of a ''

Business Insider ''Insider'', previously named ''Business Insider'' (''BI''), is an American financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Insider''s parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the German publ ...

'' investigative piece, highlighted a company sales retreat at the One&Only Palmilla resort near

Cabo San Lucas Cabo San Lucas (, "Saint Luke Cape"), or simply just Cabo, is a resort city at the southern tip of the Baja California Peninsula, in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur. As at the 2020 Census, the population of the city was 202,694 inhabitan ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, during which Krappe reportedly sexually assaulted a 26-year-old female

business development Business development entails tasks and processes to develop and implement growth opportunities within and between organizations. It is a subset of the fields of business, commerce and organizational theory. Business development is the creation of ...

employee. Other allegations accused Krappe of presenting misleading data on Apttus’ size and financial health, and at the time of the report, there were “several” sexual harassment claims underway, as well as three lawsuits over the financial misrepresentation issues.

References

{{Reflist American companies established in 2006 Software companies established in 2006 Software companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area Companies based in San Mateo, California Cloud computing providers Cloud applications Business software companies Financial software companies Salesforce 2018 mergers and acquisitions Private equity portfolio companies Software companies of the United States