RPA startup UiPath secures USD 750 mln investment

The latest round of investment brings the US-based company’s post-money valuation to USD 35 billion, up from USD 3 billion in 2018, and will likely lay the groundwork for strategic acquisitions following UiPath’s purchase of startups StepShot and ProcessGold. RPA — technology that automates monotonous, repetitive chores traditionally performed by human workers — is big business. Forrester estimates that RPA and other AI subfields created jobs for 40% of companies in 2019 and that a tenth of startups now employ more digital workers than human ones. And according to a McKinsey survey, at least a third of activities could be automated in about 60% of occupations.

UiPath was founded in 2005. The company was headquartered in Bucharest before setting up shop in New York City and expanding to London, Bangalore, Paris, Singapore, Washington DC, and Tokyo. UiPath grew its client base from 100 customers in 2017 to over 5,000, with more than 750,000 users. Now, UiPath says the solutions developed by its over 2,800-person workforce automate tasks for more than 65% of the Fortune 500 and eight of the Fortune 10, including GE, Virgin Media, Airbus, Google, Autodesk, NASA, HP, Fujifilm, McCormick, DHL, Swiss Re, McDonald’s, and Equifax.