2
Outsystems
| Power Score: 49.99 | Momentum Score: 61.18 (T-5) | HQ: Boston, MA | CEO: Paulo Rosado |
Economics
Valuation: $9.5 billion (+850% YoY)
Amt. Raised: $572 million
Politics
Lobbying Spend: $0
Industry Orgs: No
People
Headcount:
1999 (+28% YoY)
Engineering Headcount: 655 (+38% YoY)
Big Tech Experience: 4%
Open Roles: 199
Innovation
R&D Spending: N/A
Patents Applied For: 1
Patents Owned: 2
Acquisitions: None
Leadership
Exec Team Exits : No
Diversity Data?: No
ESG/CSR Data? : No
On Power
The history of OutSystems is a bit like the end of a Christopher Nolan movie, in that it took a little while for people to really get it. Founded in 2001 in Portugal, OutSystems slowly and quietly built its business until it eventually relocated its headquarters to Boston and began courting big-name investors in the mid-2010s . In 2018, the company reached the coveted unicorn status and now approaches decacorn status following a $150 million funding round in February 2021. In that time, OutSystems has managed to attract giant enterprises such as Toyota, Logitech and Deloitte to its ranks, and is now doubling down on cloud application development and automation with what it calls “Project Neo.” The company launched a preview version of the new platform at its annual event in November, with plans for a full rollout in 2022.
On Disruption
OutSystems has set itself apart by focusing on low-code integrations between SaaS platforms , which has become increasingly important to enterprises that leverage hundreds of applications to run their businesses. Some competitors like Salesforce’s Lightning Platform are largely focused on making it easier to extend their core products via low-code rather than offering integrations between several products, leaving the market more open for OutSystems, which can stay neutral between SaaS offerings rather than solely focus on extending a single platform.
Tea Leaves
The company has been squarely focused on its low-code platform rather than following the lead of some competitors that have built out no-code offerings in recent years. And the company has been outspoken about what it views as no-code’s fatal flaw as it’s done so. CEO Paulo Rosado has said that enterprise applications will always require some customization beyond what a no-code tool can provide, making OutSystems’ low-code approach better suited for the market. While low-code limits the number of people that can take advantage of OutSystems’ tools, it gives the company a broader offering than pure no-code competitors, and the launch of Project Neo could give the users the chance to expand the breadth of apps it’s possible to create with OutSystems’ platform. The company has also indicated that it plans to integrate more AI tools into that platform, as many of its competitors have already begun to do .
They Said It
"We encounter ourselves in a world where companies increasingly want to build more software because they want to be differentiated, they want to compete, but the talent available and the speed they have to build these pieces of software are becoming more and more challenging, and we help a lot in doing that.”
– CEO Paulo Rosado in an April 2020 interview
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Return to the Low-Code/No-Code Power Index here .