Robotic process automation startup Automation Anywhere raises $290M Series B at a valuation of $6.8B, now has 3,500+ enterprise clients in 90+ countries
Robotic process automation (RPA), or bots that can be programmed to perform tedious and mundane tasks, is undergoing a period of explosive growth.
Context & Ripple Effects
Automation Anywhere has now raised three times in under 18 months: a $250M Series A at a $1.8B post-money led by NEA and Goldman Sachs in mid-2018, then SoftBank Vision Fund's $300M at $2.6B with 1,500 customers. This $290M Series B at $6.8B nearly triples that valuation in about a year, with the client base growing past 3,500 across 90+ countries.
The round also resets the race with UiPath, which had pulled ahead in April 2019 with a $568M Series D at a $7B valuation. Automation Anywhere is now valued within striking distance of its chief rival, making this a two-horse contest for the enterprise bot market.
First-order effects
- SoftBank-backed Automation Anywhere enters 2020 with fresh capital to fund expansion against UiPath, whose April round had briefly left it as both the larger company and the better-capitalized one.
- The jump from roughly 1,500 customers at the SoftBank round to 3,500-plus today shows enterprise adoption accelerating faster than the valuation multiple — demand, not just investor enthusiasm, is driving the reprice.
Second-order effects
- UiPath now faces a rival with comparable scale and SoftBank's balance sheet behind it, pressuring both vendors to compete harder on enterprise contracts and land-and-expand deals rather than price alone.
- Enterprise buyers evaluating bots gain genuine negotiating leverage between two heavily funded incumbents, while smaller RPA startups find the funding window effectively closed at the top of the market.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, RPA consolidates into a duopoly of venture-funded platform vendors, squeezing point-tool providers out and pushing systems integrators to standardize on one of the two stacks.
- Successive mega-rounds at steeply rising valuations suggest investors are treating task-automation platforms as infrastructure-grade bets — a framing that will be tested whenever either vendor faces public-market scrutiny.
The trend: Robotic process automation is consolidating around two SoftBank- and Sequoia-backed platform leaders racing to lock up enterprise automation budgets before the category matures.