Asana vs SAP: Founders, CEOs and History
Asana was founded in 2008 by Dustin Moskovitz, Justin Rosenstein and is led by Dan Rogers. SAP was founded in 1972 by Dietmar Hopp, Hasso Plattner, Hans-Werner Hector and is led by Christian Klein.
Company facts
Founders
Asana
Dustin Moskovitz
Dustin Moskovitz is a US entrepreneur, a co-founder of Facebook, and the co-founder of Asana, which he ran as chief executive officer from 2008 until July 2025.
Justin Rosenstein
Justin Rosenstein is a US software engineer and entrepreneur who co-founded Asana with Dustin Moskovitz.
SAP
Dietmar Hopp
Dietmar Hopp is one of SAP's five co-founders. After leaving IBM in 1972, he helped build the company's first real-time financial accounting software for chemical maker ICI. He served as co-CEO of SAP from 1988 to 1998 and later sat on the Supervisory Board.
Hasso Plattner
Hasso Plattner is the SAP co-founder most closely tied to its technology roadmap, from R/3 to the in-memory HANA database.
Hans-Werner Hector
Hans-Werner Hector is one of SAP's five co-founders. He worked on the company's early software and later served on its Executive Board. He co-founded the Hector Foundation, which funds science, medical research and education for gifted children in Germany.
Klaus Tschira
Klaus Tschira (1940-2015) was one of SAP's five co-founders and a long-serving member of its Executive Board and later its Supervisory Board.
Claus Wellenreuther
Wellenreuther co-founded SAP in 1972 alongside four colleagues. He specialized in financial accounting software and was instrumental in designing the foundational RF system, the predecessor to SAP R/1, before leaving the company in 1980 due to health reasons.…
CEOs and their tenures
Asana
- Dustin Moskovitz2008–2025
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Ran Asana for its first 17 years, from incorporation in December 2008 to a platform with more than 180,000 paying customers, and retains a majority of the company's voting power through its dual-class structure.
Source - Dan Rogers2025–present
Chief Executive Officer
Second chief executive in Asana's history, brought in to restart growth by rebuilding the platform around AI agents while holding the margin gains that produced non-GAAP operating income of $56.7 million in fiscal 2026.
Source
SAP
- Bill McDermott2014–2019
Chief Executive Officer
Under McDermott SAP shifted toward cloud subscriptions and expanded through acquisitions including Concur (2014) and Qualtrics (2019). He left in 2019 to lead ServiceNow, and Jennifer Morgan and Christian Klein succeeded him.
Source - Jennifer Morgan2019–2020
Chief Executive Officer
She was the first female CEO of a DAX index company, playing a key role in SAP's cloud growth before departing in early 2020 as the company consolidated under a single CEO.
Source - Christian Klein2020–present
Chief Executive Officer
Under Klein, cloud revenue grew from ~$9.15 billion (EUR 8.1 billion) in 2020 to ~$23.7 billion (EUR 21.0 billion) in 2025, and SAP's strategy narrowed to cloud ERP, data and Business AI.
Source - Dominik Asam2023–present
Chief Financial Officer
As CFO, his operational discipline significantly expanded free cash flow and operating margins as the company transitioned aggressively to cloud subscriptions.
Source
Timeline: Asana and SAP side by side
1972SAP
SAP is founded
Five former IBM employees founded SAP to build real-time standard business software.
1988SAP
SAP IPO
SAP listed on the German stock exchanges in 1988.
1992SAP
SAP R/3 launches
R/3 brought client-server ERP to a broader global enterprise market.
2008Asana
Asana incorporated in Delaware: Dustin Moskovitz and Justin Rosenstein left Facebook and incorporated the company in Delaware on December 16, 2008, initially as Smiley Abstractions, Inc., renamed Asan…
2009Asana
$9 million Series A from Benchmark and Andreessen Horowitz: Asana raised a $9 million Series A round in November 2009 led by Benchmark, with Andreessen Horowitz participating and Benchmark's Matt Cohl…
2010SAP
Sybase Acquired
SAP bought the database company Sybase in 2010 for about $5.8 billion.
2011Asana
Product opens to the public for free: After about three years of building a custom web framework called Luna and the Work Graph data model behind it, Asana opened its platform to the public at no char…
2012Asana
Paid plans and a public API: Asana began charging for the platform in April 2012 and released its API to third-party developers the same month, with Twitter and LinkedIn among the early companies runn…
2012Asana
$28 million raised to expand the team: Asana raised $28 million in July 2012 to build out engineering, support and sales as paid usage started to grow.
2014SAP
Acquired Concur Technologies
SAP acquired Concur Technologies for $8.3 billion. SAP bought Concur, the leading travel and expense management software provider, for about $8.3 billion to expand its cloud business and its network of business-spend services.
2015SAP
S/4HANA launches
S/4HANA became the foundation for SAP's next-generation ERP roadmap.
2016Asana
$50 million Series C led by Sam Altman: Asana raised $50 million in Series C funding led by Sam Altman, then president of Y Combinator, at a valuation of about $600 million.
2018Asana
Portfolios and the Asana Business tier: Asana launched Portfolios alongside a new Business plan in November 2018, giving executives a single view of progress and resourcing across many projects and pu…
2018Asana
$125 million raised at a $1.5 billion valuation: Asana raised $75 million in Series D funding led by Generation Investment Management and a further $50 million in November 2018 that valued the company…
2019Asana
Workload capacity planning ships: Asana released Workload in August 2019, letting managers see how individual team members were staffed across projects and rebalance assignments without leaving the pl…
2019SAP
Jennifer Morgan becomes CEO
Jennifer Morgan became CEO of SAP in 2019. Chief executive of SAP from 2019 to 2020.
2019SAP
Acquired Qualtrics
SAP acquired Qualtrics for $8 billion. SAP bought experience management company Qualtrics for about $8 billion in early 2019, shortly before Qualtrics' planned IPO, to link customer and employee sentiment data with operational data.
2020Asana
Asana Goals links execution to strategy: Asana released Goals on July 15, 2020, a goal-tracking layer that connects company objectives to the projects and tasks underneath them so progress updates aut…
2020Asana
Direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange: Asana went public on September 30, 2020 through a direct listing rather than an IPO.
2020SAP
Christian Klein becomes sole CEO
Christian Klein became sole chief executive of SAP SE in April 2020 after six months as co-CEO.
2022Asana
Workforce cut by 9%: In November 2022 Asana cut about 9% of its global workforce in a restructuring aimed at operating costs after two years of rapid hiring during the remote-work boom.
2023Asana
Asana Intelligence brings generative AI into the Work Graph: Asana announced its first generative AI features in June 2023 and packaged them as Asana Intelligence on October 3, 2023, covering smart st…
2023SAP
Joule announced
SAP introduced Joule as a generative AI assistant for enterprise applications.
2024Asana
AI Studio opens agent building to non-developers: Asana launched AI Studio in October 2024, a no-code builder that lets teams embed AI agents in a workflow and deploy them inside Asana.
2025Asana
Dan Rogers succeeds Dustin Moskovitz as chief executive: Moskovitz announced his retirement as chief executive in March 2025.
2025SAP
Cloud revenue reaches ~$23.8B (EUR 21.023B)
SAP's 2025 results showed cloud revenue, backlog, and predictable revenue becoming central to the model.
2026Asana
StackAI acquired for $75 million: Asana completed its acquisition of StackAI, a no-code AI workflow platform, on May 28, 2026 for $75 million.
2026Asana
Repositioned as an operating system for human-agent teams: At its Work Innovation Summit in June 2026 Asana unveiled a product suite built so employees and AI agents work from the same plan, context a…
2026Asana
Dan Rogers named board chair: Effective September 25, 2026 Rogers added board chair to the chief executive role, Dustin Moskovitz moved to director, and Jerry Ting and Tom Berquist joined the board.
2026SAP
Dremio and Prior Labs acquisitions close
SAP completed the Dremio and Prior Labs acquisitions in July 2026 to strengthen Business Data Cloud and AI on structured data.
Acquisitions
SAP
- Dremio2026Undisclosed
- Prior Labs2026Undisclosed
- WalkMe2024$1.5B
- Qualtrics2019$8B
- Concur Technologies2014$8.3B
- Fieldglass2014Undisclosed
Questions about Asana vs SAP
Who is the CEO of Asana, Inc. and SAP SE?
Asana, Inc. is led by Dan Rogers and SAP SE is led by Christian Klein. Both serve as the top executive responsible for the company's strategy, operations, and financial performance.
When was Asana, Inc. founded vs SAP SE?
SAP SE was founded in 1972 — 36 years before Asana, Inc., which was founded in 2008. SAP SE's longer operating history gives it a deeper track record but also potentially more institutional inertia compared to the younger Asana, Inc..
How many employees does Asana, Inc. have compared to SAP SE?
Asana, Inc. employs approximately 1,767 people, while SAP SE employs approximately 112,019. SAP SE has the larger workforce at 112,019 employees, compared to Asana, Inc.'s 1,767. A higher headcount does not necessarily imply greater efficiency — it often reflects differences in business model (e.g., manufacturing vs. software).
Where are Asana, Inc. and SAP SE headquartered?
Asana, Inc. is headquartered in United States and SAP SE is headquartered in Germany. Their different home markets mean they may face different regulatory frameworks, tax regimes, and currency exposure.
Who founded Asana, Inc. and SAP SE?
Asana, Inc. was founded by Dustin Moskovitz, Justin Rosenstein. SAP SE was founded by Dietmar Hopp, Hasso Plattner, Hans-Werner Hector, Klaus Tschira, Claus Wellenreuther.
Which company has a longer operating history — Asana, Inc. or SAP SE?
SAP SE has been operating for approximately 54 years, making it the more established of the two companies. Asana, Inc. has been in operation for around 18 years. A longer operating history often signals greater institutional resilience and brand recognition, though it can also mean slower adaptation to new market conditions.
Figures come from each company's filings and the sources linked beside them. Amounts reported in another currency are shown in US dollars at an approximate rate and marked with ~. Back to the Asana vs SAP overview