OpenAI brings German startup Ona onto the Codex team

OpenAI is further expanding its presence in the market for AI-powered enterprise software. The company behind ChatGPT has announced an agreement to acquire the startup Ona. Once the transaction is complete, the team is set to be integrated into OpenAI’s Codex organization.

With this move, OpenAI is strengthening its activities around agent-based AI systems for businesses and aims to expand the use of AI agents beyond individual applications into complex business processes.

From Cloud Development Environments to Enterprise Agents

Ona was originally founded with the vision of moving software development from local computers to the cloud. Developers were to be able to access complete development environments from any device. The company’s founding story began in Kiel under the name Gitpod, for which we also have a profile on Startbase, complete with success stories.

However, with the rapid progress of generative AI, a significantly larger market emerged. The startup began building secure cloud infrastructures for AI agents that can independently perform tasks, process information, and operate within enterprise systems. The final pivot was completed in 2023.

According to the company, its clients include some of the most demanding organizations worldwide, including the oldest bank in the U.S., major European pharmaceutical companies, and leading Asian sovereign wealth funds. In the current year alone, the productive use of Ona agents among corporate clients has increased 13-fold.

OpenAI Focuses on Secure Enterprise AI

For OpenAI, the acquisition is another step toward integrating AI more deeply into everyday business operations. The focus is not on individual chatbots or coding assistants, but on cloud-based agents that can perform tasks on an ongoing basis, process information across various systems, and operate within secure enterprise environments.

In the future, AI agents are expected not only to write code but also to support business processes, perform analyses, create presentations, coordinate workflows, and make knowledge available across the organization. According to Ona, three factors are particularly important in this regard:

• Context within existing corporate systems
• Control over data, access rights, and infrastructure
• Collaboration between humans and AI agents

Enterprise AI as the Next Wave of Growth

While many companies are considered slow to adopt new technologies, Ona attributes this primarily to the high risks associated with erroneous decisions. Especially in regulated industries such as banking, pharmaceuticals, or the public sector, AI systems must not only be powerful but also transparent, controllable, and secure.

This is where Ona’s technology comes in. The platform enables the operation of AI agents in customers’ own cloud environments, including access control, audit trails, version management, and security mechanisms. With OpenAI’s resources, these capabilities are now set to be developed much more rapidly.

Reinforcements for the Codex team

Ona’s management was particularly impressed by discussions with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and the Codex team. According to the company, both sides bring complementary strengths to the table: While Ona has built the infrastructure for secure enterprise agents, OpenAI brings leading AI models, research resources, and global reach to the table.

The acquisition is intended to enable AI work to be decoupled from individual devices and transferred to scalable cloud workflows, in which agents independently take on tasks and collaborate across organizations.

Transaction still subject to conditions

The completion of the acquisition is still subject to customary regulatory approvals and other closing conditions. Until then, both companies will remain independent and continue their existing business activities separately.

With the integration of Ona, however, OpenAI once again underscores its ambition not only to develop leading AI models but also to provide the infrastructure on which companies can build their future AI-powered workflows.