WSO2 founder Sanjiva Weerawarana steps down as CEO after 20 years — full story of a $600M tech empire built from Sri Lanka
The Man Who Built WSO2 Is Walking Away — But Not Because He Failed
When Sanjiva Weerawarana founded WSO2 in August 2005, nobody gave a small open-source software company from Sri Lanka much chance of surviving, let alone thriving. Two decades later, the company is worth $600 million and serves enterprises across the globe. Now, in June 2026, Weerawarana steps down as CEO — not in defeat, but in a carefully planned handoff to take WSO2 to its next chapter.
This is the full story: the struggles, the survival, the sale, and what comes next.
Who Is Sanjiva Weerawarana? The Founder Behind WSO2
Before WSO2 existed, Sanjiva Weerawarana already had serious tech credentials. He worked at IBM Research and played a key role in developing foundational web services standards. He was not someone who stumbled into entrepreneurship — he chose it deliberately.
In August 2005, Weerawarana co-founded WSO2 alongside Paul Fremantle and Davanum Srinivas. The company launched with backing from Intel Capital, Toba Capital, and Pacific Controls. Its mission was clear: build enterprise middleware software on open-source foundations, and make it better than what the big vendors were selling at premium prices.
The idea made sense on paper. The execution would take everything Weerawarana had.
The Three Times WSO2 Nearly Died
WSO2 did not grow in a straight line. It nearly collapsed — multiple times.
“We officially ran out of money three times,” Weerawarana told EconomyNext in a candid interview before his departure. That statement alone tells you everything about the kind of grit the company required to survive.
The most brutal moment came in 2015. Shareholders at the time gave the company an ultimatum: turn profitable, or face consequences. This was not a gentle nudge. It was a hard deadline backed by the threat of the whole project collapsing.
WSO2 managed to become cash-positive within two years. That turnaround proved the business model was real, not just a hopeful idea. Profitability triggered growth, which triggered investment interest, which eventually led to the defining event in WSO2’s history.
The $600 Million Sale to EQT: A Game-Changer
In August 2024, private equity giant EQT acquired WSO2 at a valuation of approximately $600 million — reported at roughly six times the company’s revenue at the time. Weerawarana and other shareholders divested their stakes as part of the deal.
The acquisition was transformational. It gave WSO2 the capital firepower of a global PE firm and set the stage for serious commercial scaling. It also, importantly, shifted the governance structure. The Board of Directors now includes Jonas Persson, Chairman and Senior Advisor at EQT — meaning the decision about who leads the company next does not rest with the founder alone.
That matters for understanding why Weerawarana is stepping down now and why the Board is leading the search for his replacement.
Why Is Sanjiva Weerawarana Stepping Down?
This is not Weerawarana’s first exit from WSO2. He previously stepped down as CEO in 2017, handing operations to Tyler Jeswell, before eventually returning to the role through the company’s acquisition and expansion phase.
So what is different this time?
“Last time I stepped down was because I wanted to get somebody to drive the business in a more product marketing, sales-oriented way,” Weerawarana explained. “But now it’s different because we are a much larger company.”
This departure is a scale-up move, not a step back. WSO2 wants to grow its revenue to between $500 million and $1 billion. That level of commercial scaling requires a different kind of leadership — one with deep experience running businesses at that revenue tier. Weerawarana recognises this openly, and he frames the transition as passing the baton to someone better positioned for that specific phase of the company’s growth.
“It has been an incredible journey building WSO2 over the past two decades,” Weerawarana said in the official announcement. “I am proud of what we’ve accomplished and confident in the team and strategy driving the company forward. WSO2’s role in enabling the next generation of AI-driven, agent-based digital experiences is only just beginning.”
Who Takes Over? Meet Acting CEO Devaka Randeniya
With Weerawarana stepping down effective June 2026, the WSO2 Board of Directors has appointed Chief Revenue Officer Devaka Randeniya as Acting CEO. Randeniya joined WSO2 in November 2006 as its very first sales representative. He has been with the company for nearly two decades — almost as long as Weerawarana himself.
That background matters. Randeniya understands WSO2’s culture, its customers, and its technology from the ground up. He also brings the commercial focus the company needs, given his role as CRO.
Board Chairman Jonas Persson offered confident words about the transition: “With a strong leadership team, a clear strategy, and growing demand for our platform, WSO2 is well-positioned to continue its momentum. The Board is focused on ensuring a smooth transition and identifying the right leader for the company’s next phase.”
The Board has launched a formal search for a permanent CEO. Whether Randeniya ultimately claims that role permanently remains an open question — one the industry is watching closely.
What Does WSO2 Actually Do? (And Why It Matters Now)
For anyone unfamiliar with WSO2’s business, here is a quick primer.
WSO2 builds enterprise software that helps organisations integrate, manage, and govern their digital systems — APIs, applications, identities, and data flows. Think of it as the control layer sitting underneath the digital products that banks, governments, telecoms, and healthcare companies use every day.
The company’s timing in the AI era is excellent. As enterprises race to deploy AI agents — automated systems that make decisions and take actions on behalf of organisations — they face a massive governance challenge. Who controls those agents? How do you track what they do? How do you keep them secure?
WSO2 positions its platform as the answer to exactly those questions. The company recently launched an Agent Manager product specifically designed to bring identity, governance, and scale to enterprise AI agents. It addresses what many in the industry call “agent sprawl” — the growing problem of too many AI agents operating without adequate oversight.
WSO2’s Ambitious Revenue Target: $500M to $1 Billion
The scale of WSO2’s commercial ambition is striking. Going from its current revenue base to $500 million to $1 billion is not a small step — it requires a fundamentally different level of sales execution, market penetration, and operational scale.
Weerawarana has been clear that this is precisely why he is stepping aside. He built the company to this point. He wants the next phase led by someone who specialises in driving businesses through that kind of hyper-growth commercial phase.
The EQT acquisition provides the capital foundation. The new CEO will need to provide the execution engine.
A Farewell Appearance at WSO2Con North America 2026
Before officially handing over the reins, Weerawarana will make one final appearance on the main stage at WSO2Con North America 2026, the company’s annual user conference taking place in Austin, Texas this month. He will deliver the Day 2 keynote session on “Building the Agentic Enterprise.”
It is a fitting final act — not a quiet exit, but a public declaration of where he believes the company’s future lies: in AI-driven, agent-based enterprise technology.
The Legacy: What Sanjiva Weerawarana Built
Weerawarana’s impact on Sri Lanka’s technology sector alone would be remarkable. He built one of the most globally recognised enterprise software companies to ever come out of South Asia. WSO2 competed — and won — against the likes of MuleSoft, IBM, and WSO2’s other Western rivals.
He did it by staying committed to open-source principles, building a globally distributed engineering team rooted in Sri Lanka, and refusing to give up even when the money ran out. Three times.
The company now serves enterprises across dozens of countries. It has products across API management, integration, identity and access management, and now AI governance. Its platform processes billions of transactions daily for organisations that depend on it completely.
That is the foundation Weerawarana hands to his successor.
What Comes Next for WSO2?
The company enters its next chapter with clear advantages. It has a well-defined product strategy centered on AI and agent governance. It has the backing of EQT’s capital and global network. It has a strong leadership team in place. And it has genuine, growing enterprise demand for its platform.
The risk is execution. Finding the right permanent CEO at a time when WSO2 needs to scale aggressively is a high-stakes search. The new leader will need to understand enterprise software, AI trends, and large-scale commercial growth simultaneously.
WSO2 also needs to make sure it does not lose its cultural identity in the transition. The company’s roots — in open source, in Sri Lanka, in a builder’s mentality — are part of what made it distinctive. Scaling to $1 billion in revenue without losing that spirit is a real challenge.
Final Thought: This Is a Beginning, Not an Ending
Sanjiva Weerawarana does not frame his departure as retirement. He frames it as a handoff — a deliberate, strategic decision made from a position of strength, not necessity. He built something real, survived the near-death moments, navigated a $600 million acquisition, and now passes the keys to the next driver.
The story of WSO2 is far from over. In many ways, the most commercially ambitious chapter is just beginning.
And somewhere in the background, you can be fairly certain Weerawarana is not entirely done with tech either. Twenty years of building something you love does not just switch off. Watch this space.