A 13-year-old startup you've never heard of just raised $225 million from Google to make software robots -and tripled its valuation from 6 months ago

UiPath

UiPath CEO Daniel Dines, a Romanian Microsoft alumnus, cofounded the New York-based company in 2005 but it wasn't until recently that it really took off.

• UiPath, a software robotics company, has raised $225 million in funding.
• The company, cofounded by a Romanian former Microsoft staffer, is now worth $3 billion.

Silicon Valley's biggest investors are throwing money at UiPath, a software robotics company now valued at $3 billion thanks to its second mega-funding round this year.

On Tuesday, UiPath announced $225 million in Series C funding from investors at Google's CapitalG, Sequoia and Accel. The startup's last funding round was just six months ago in March 2018, when it raised $153 million at a $1.1 billion valuation.

While UiPath calls itself a robotic process automation software company, it's not talking about metal arms or high-traction rubber wheels. It's really more of an artificial intelligence or machine learning company, as its software lets companies automate repetitive business processes. The software interact with applications the way humans might, only it "never sleeps, makes zero mistakes and costs a lot less than an employee," according to the UiPath website.

"We strongly believe that RPA is a primary route for organizations to benefit from AI, and UiPath is proving this potential with its unparalleled growth and incredible customer impact," Laela Sturdy, partner at CapitalG, said in a statement.

Rich Wong, partner at Accel, echoed this vision.

"I am continually amazed by the dynamics of the RPA and AI market," Wong said in a statement. "UiPath is demonstrating that they have a platform that delivers incredible customer value fast. We believe that we are at the very early stage for companies to broadly benefit from automation and AI."

Daniel Dines, a Romanian Microsoft alumnus, cofounded the New York-based company in 2005 but it wasn't until recently that it really took off.

The company said it grew its annual recurring revenue from $1 million to $100 million in less than 21 months, and claims the title of "fastest-growing enterprise software company of all time."

The company also says it adds six new enterprise customers a day, and touts Autodesk, BMW Group and Huawei as customers. The startup has also grown its employee count 300% in the last year. By the end of 2018, UiPath plans to have 1,700 employees.

"We are enabling a future where employees at every organization are empowered to automate tedious and time-consuming work, enabling them to focus on creative, challenging problems," Dines said in a statement. "UiPath is driven by the incredible potential for our platform to be the gateway to transform our customers' digital business operations with machine learning and AI."

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