WalkMe started life in 2011 under the name Make Tutorial. Its idea fit in that name. Big companies spent fortunes on software that their own staff struggled to use. WalkMe laid a layer of pop-up tips and walkthroughs on top of those apps, guiding people click by click. By June 2021 the pandemic had sent office work online, and companies were rolling out new tools faster than ever. The Israeli company went public selling what it called digital adoption.

Make Tutorial, Renamed

Dan Adika, Rafael Sweary, Eyal Cohen and Yuval Shalom Ozanna founded the company in Israel in October 2011. It became WalkMe in March 2012 and launched its product that April. The bet was that every company running big business software needed a guide that lived inside the screen. WalkMe sold it by subscription. By March 2021 it had about 2,000 customers in 42 countries, including 155 of the Fortune 500.

Bought by SAP

WalkMe sold 9.25 million shares at $31 and listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market as WKME in June 2021. Revenue had reached $148.3 million in 2020. By 2024 the shares traded far below the $31 offer price. In June 2024 SAP agreed to buy WalkMe for $14 a share in cash, about $1.5 billion. The deal closed in September 2024, and WalkMe left Nasdaq to become part of SAP.

Cover: Adirondacks Guide, Winslow Homer. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a wilderness guide (showing the way).