“As a company that was born out of Romania, we believe we have left a significant mark on the region’s startup environment and are continuing to see incredible innovation coming out of the region,” Vijay Khanna, Chief Corporate Development Officer at UiPath, shares with us.
Founded back in 2005, by a Romanian team led by Daniel Dines, the US-based company provides robotic process automation. While last year it was all about the biggest New York software IPOs, this year, the celebrated RPA company announced the launch of UiPath Ventures.
After a decade of building its solution, UiPath is turning its attention towards strengthening the ecosystem by supporting companies that complement its “Fully Automated Enterprise” vision. The target is to reduce time and stress, which can come with repetitive tasks, and to turn the focus on creativity in the enterprise sector.
“With that in mind, we see an opportunity to share our experience and passion for fostering the next generation of innovative technology solutions harnessing the power of automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML). This also includes fostering deep strategic partnerships with our portfolio companies,” Vijay adds.
UiPath Ventures: First steps in the market
To do so, UiPath Ventures will invest in growth-stage technology startups, in Series A to pre-IPO companies, with automation at their core. Their first step has been joining airSlate’s latest €48M funding round.
The SaaS platform has been developing a no-code management solution, which also involves e-signatures and facilitates document approvals. The US company was founded in 2006 by Borya Shakhnovich and Vadim Yasinovsky.
The CVC will support the mother company in building the next layer of the automation vertical. Disruptive companies joining their portfolio will have access to experts, the unicorn’s ecosystem, market alignment opportunities, and operational guidance to manage any crises that come their way.
Forester predicts the RPA market will grow to €20B by 2025, but that it will reach a plateau and companies will move towards broader AI automation solutions. Nevertheless, the RPA solution is spreading to more sectors. In SEE, Bucharest-based DigiSinergy offers robots to digitize invoices, while the Sofia-born RPA Consulting targets different sectors, from e-commerce to manufacturing.
