UiPath, the New York-based robotic process automation software company now has a valuation of $3 billion, after closing an extended round of Series C fundraising in which it was able to amass $265 million, pushing its valuation into the multi-billion dollar range.
The funding extension brought on new investors IVP, Madrona Venture Group and Meritech Capital. It was led by CapitalG and Sequoia Capital, two veteran investors in the software and software as a service market. The Series C round was first announced in September. The extended funding was also created to allow existing employees to gain some liquidity with employees allowed to participate at the same price that investors received in the round. In a press release announcing the round of funding UiPath said it had many funding options but went with the investors it thinks aligns best with the company’s culture and beliefs.
Along with IVP, Meritech and Madrona, UiPath has raised more than $400 million from investors including Accel, CapitalG, Earlybird’s Digital East Fund, Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, Credo Ventures, Seedcamp and Sequoia Capital. UiPath raised its Series A round in April of 2017 with 200 customers at a valuation of $140 million. It raised another $153 million in March of 2018 at a valuation of $1.1 billion.
UiPath’s fast pace of fund raising comes at a time when enterprises are aiming to take advantage of the benefits AI is bringing to the workplace. With robotic process automation, software companies are betting they can reduce costs and boost efficiency and productivity within an organization. UiPath boasts the ability to provide one robot for each person which means a company can double the workforce without having to engage in additional hiring.
The prospect of saving money has translated into a lot of investments going toward AI software companies and is the reason for UiPath’s fast trajectory in a short period of time. Recognizing the speed in which it has raised money and grown, UiPath took the steps to provide more transparency into its funding. In a blog post the company said that in July it had annual recurring revenue of $100 million and today that has surpassed $150 million. It said its customer base has grown four times since the end of 2017 and now counts 25 U.S. government agencies as customers, including the Army, Defense Logistics Agency, GSA, IRS, NASA, Navy, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. As for its investors, UiPath said its the quality, not the quantity that matters. “There is a large amount of capital flowing into the RPA and AI markets. But not all investors are the same. It’s the people behind them that matter to us,” it said in the blog post.
