Asana Acquires StackAI for $75M to Boost AI Workflow Automation

Asana has acquired the workflow automation company StackAI for $75 million, a strategic move intended to bolster its transition into an AI-native workplace platform. As part of the agreement, StackAI founders Tony Rosinol and Bernard Aceituno will join Asana. The acquisition was announced Thursday afternoon to coincide with the company’s earnings and investor call.

Building the Operating System for Human-Agent Teams

Asana is positioning its platform to become the operating system for human-agent teams. By incorporating StackAI’s technology, the company aims to expand its existing AI capabilities, which already include the AI Studio agent builder and the AI Teammates series of pre-built automations.
StackAI, a member of Y Combinator’s Winter ’23 cohort, specializes in designing agents that operate within existing business systems. The platform pulls data from various enterprise tools, including Salesforce, Slack, and Gsuite, to automate complex workflows. Asana CEO Dan Rogers stated that the acquisition accelerates the company’s roadmap, noting that StackAI allows for the end-to-end "agentification" of complex business processes.

Strategic Advantage in a Competitive Market

The workflow automation space has become increasingly crowded, with StackAI facing competition from established automation tools like Zapier as well as major AI labs such as OpenAI and Anthropic. Prior to the acquisition, StackAI had raised just under $20 million, including a $16 million Series A round backed by investors such as Gradient, Epakon Capital, Lobby VC, LifeX Ventures, and Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch.
While major labs offer equivalent AI tools, Asana believes its primary advantage lies in its deep integration into corporate workflows. By operating within these systems, Asana can leverage context and training data that would otherwise be inaccessible to external AI models.

Navigating a Challenging Market

The acquisition arrives as Asana seeks to rebound from a difficult period on public markets. The company has seen its market cap value drop by more than half since the introduction of ChatGPT, a decline that intensified following the departure of founder Dustin Moskovitz as CEO last March.
Despite these market pressures, Asana has maintained steady revenue growth. The company’s new leadership remains confident that the integration of human-agent products will serve as a catalyst for future performance, allowing the platform to evolve alongside the changing demands of the AI era.