SAP invests in n8n at $5.2bn valuation to apply AI to intricate enterprise data processes

Thaddeus Norwell13 May 2026

Office workers monitoring an automated workflow dashboard across multiple software platforms.

Workflow automation startup n8n has seen its valuation double to $5.2 billion after securing a strategic investment from enterprise software giant SAP. The company, previously valued at $2.5 billion in October 2025, has attracted backing from SAP alongside a separate $180 million Series C round led by Accel, with participation from Nvidia’s venture capital arm NVentures.

SAP integration and Joule Studio

Alongside the investment, n8n and SAP have signed a multi-year commercial agreement to embed n8n’s platform into Joule Studio, SAP’s agent-building environment within the SAP Business AI Platform. The integration will allow enterprises to automate workflows across SAP systems and external software tools through a single interface. SAP chief executive Christian Klein said the partnership would accelerate the company’s ability to help customers “design, connect, and scale agentic AI across their core business processes”. Klein, who has been at SAP since 1999 and became sole CEO in April 2020, has driven the company’s transformation into a cloud-centric business under a “Business AI” strategy that aims to embed intelligence into core operations. SAP plans to offer more than 400 AI scenarios by the end of 2025, up from roughly 240 currently.

Joule Studio is designed to let organisations create custom AI agents and skills that leverage SAP’s existing business data and process context, including the SAP Knowledge Graph and SAP Business Data Cloud. This grounding in real-world business data is intended to avoid the “hallucinations” common in generic AI models. The platform supports both low-code and pro-code development, enabling the creation of specialised task handlers known as Joule skills as well as more sophisticated AI agents capable of complex problem-solving.

Multi-agent orchestration and compliance

Unlike traditional workflow tools such as UiPath and Zapier, n8n supports multi-agent orchestration, a capability that allows systems to identify business events, coordinate decisions and trigger actions automatically within an auditable environment. This feature is central to n8n’s differentiation in a competitive market that also includes Make, Microsoft Power Automate, Workato and Apache Airflow. n8n’s platform enables organisations to connect applications, databases, AI models and business software through automated workflows, and supports no-code, low-code and pro-code development. It offers more than 1,000 integrations across software platforms, databases and enterprise tools, allowing companies to link SAP systems with broader technology stacks.

Compliance and data sovereignty are key focuses for n8n, making it attractive to regulated industries and large enterprises adopting automation at scale. Enterprises can maintain control over their data while meeting GDPR requirements, internal residency rules and sector-specific regulations. GDPR non-compliance can result in fines of up to €20 million or 4% of global revenue, and specialised software tools – including AI-driven solutions – are emerging to automate tasks such as automated evidence collection, continuous monitoring, data mapping and managing data subject access requests. In the UK, AI adoption is growing: 15% of businesses integrated AI in 2023, a figure projected to rise to 22.7% this year, with large enterprises leading at 68% adoption, followed by medium-sized companies at 34% and small businesses at 15%. The IT and telecommunications and legal services sectors show the highest rates.

Founded in Berlin in 2019 by Jan Oberhauser, a former visual effects artist who wanted to simplify repetitive coding tasks, n8n began as an open-source workflow automation platform. Oberhauser introduced a “fair-code” licensing model in March 2022 – the Sustainable Use License – which permits self-hosting and modification for internal use but restricts reselling, ensuring value flows back to the maintainers. The company now serves more than 1,400 enterprise customers and 1.7 million monthly active developers and builders globally. Oberhauser described the SAP investment as a “pivotal moment”, saying: “As one of the world’s largest enterprise software companies, its decision to back n8n and to embed us inside Joule Studio reflects genuine confidence in our platform and our vision.”