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If time = $$, then robotic process automation is a money machine. RPA automates rote tasks, handing them off from humans to algorithms.
Case in point: RPA startup UiPath just announced a $750 million series F. That’s part of a serious glow-up: UiPath’s post-money valuation is now $35 billion—over 10x more than in 2018.
- UiPath’s clients range from Google, NASA, and GE to Equifax, HP, and McDonald’s.
Delegate it
UiPath’s approach starts with generating an “X-ray” of workflows to recommend what to automate, reports VentureBeat. Then it moves into the data-gathering process—e.g., taking screenshots as an employee goes through a task.
Computer vision algorithms and a neural network allow the tech to “see” desktops and understand relevant documents. It uses AI to understand patterns in the data and how best to operate step-by-step.
The tech is applicable in any industry with “repetitive, heavily rule-based” tasks, says Adam Rawot, an intelligence associate and RPA analyst at CB Insights.
- Think: streamlining patient intake at hospitals, preparing invoices in financial services, digitizing legal documents, or automating repeat searches (files, priors, data to cite) for insurance claim representatives.
Growth spurt
Though UiPath is nearly as old as Facebook, it didn't start raising VC money until 2015. Now it’s on track for an IPO this year, pending SEC approval, which could be “the Snowflake IPO of 2021,” per TechCrunch.
UiPath’s fast-tracked growth mirrors that of RPA at large, which has “absolutely exploded over the last couple of years,” says Rawot. Since 2018, Microsoft, IBM, and SAP have all thrown their algos in the ring.
- There’s a handful of startup competitors, too—including Automation Anywhere, which raised $290 million from investors including SoftBank in 2019.
Onward and upward: The pandemic boosted interest across industries. By 2022, nine in 10 large organizations worldwide “will have adopted RPA in some form,” according to a Gartner forecast.
- RPA startups have been pushing that goal by pursuing non-IT buyers so that “people with basically no technical experience can input their own processes and get those automated,” says Rawot.