After joining the 'unicorn' league following $250 million of funding round in July, robotic process automation (RPA) firm Automation Anywhere has raised another $300 million from SoftBank Vision Fund at a valuation of $2.6 billion. This is an extension of the series A round in which the company has raised $550 million so far.
In July, the automation firm had raised one of the largest series A funding of $250 million at an enterprise valuation of $1.8 billion. The last round was led by New Enterprise Associates and Goldman Sachs Growth Equity with participation from General Atlantic and World Innovation Lab.
In a span of four months, the company has witnessed a valuation upside of $800 million with global PE giants like SoftBank Vision Fund coming on board.
"With this additional capital, we are in a position to do far more than any other provider. We will not only continue to deliver the most advanced robotic process automation (RPA) to the market, but will help bring artificial intelligence (AI) to millions," said Mihir Shukla, CEO & co-founder at Automation Anywhere.
RPA firms worldwide are attracting a lot of fund flow from investors as enterprises increasingly look for improvement of efficiency with cost optimisation through automation. This week Automation Anywhere's larger peer UiPath raised $265 million led by investors such as CapitalG and Sequoia Capital that valued the company at $3 billion.
Analysts see the investment by SoftBank Vision Fund to help Automation Anywhere reach out to a broader client base. "Enterprises of all sizes are in the midst of a major transition to digital platforms and we are excited to partner with Automation Anywhere to accelerate this transformation," said Praveen Akkiraju, managing partner at Softbank Investment Advisers.
Founded by four Indians — Ankur Kothari, Neeti Mehta Shukla, Mihir Shukla, Rushabh Parmani — in 2003, California-headquartered Automation Anywhere has presence in Baroda, Bengaluru, and Mumbai where most of its development and delivery teams are located.
The company after the first round of fund raising had said that it would raise its headcount to 3,000 people by 2019 from its then strength 1,000. It also plans to increase deployment of bots to 300 from its earlier level of 100.
Automation Anywhere with presence in 19 locations is also planning to increase its footprint to 30 with offices in Hong Kong, Middle East, Poland, Germany, and in African region in coming quarters.