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A startup that uses robots to write news gets acquired for $80 million in cash

Feb 23, 2015, 21:30 IST

Earlier this month, Vista Equity Partners acquired Automated Insights (Ai), a startup that uses technology to turn data into news articles, for an undisclosed sum.

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"We aren't disclosing the amount, but I will say two things about the financials," founder and CEO Robbie Allen told TechCrunch. "Our shareholders are very happy with their return, and we were already in a strong financial position."

Sorry Robbie! But we know the price.

Ai was acquired for $80 million in an all-cash deal, a source with knowledge of the deal tells Business Insider.

Ai, which is headquartered in Durham, North Carolina, was founded in 2007. It raised $10.8 million from investors such as former AOL executive Steve Case and Samsung Ventures. Vista also acquired a competitor of Ai, STATS, last June. Both STATS and Ai use technology to turn data into articles that read like they were written by humans. STATS specializes in sports content; Ai produces real-estate, marketing, finance and sports content.

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What does a $14 billion PE firm want with robo-news companies?

Allen explained some of the logic behind acquisition in a blog post. Vista owns 26 companies, and Allen thinks he can help those companies leverage their data. "Vista's resources and STATS' distribution will allow us to fast-track our Wordsmith natural language generation (NLG) platform across multiple industries," Allen writes.

The Associated Press works with Ai and increased the number of articles it produces ten-fold, Ai says. Here's an example of an Ai-written AP article:

Allen did not return multiple requests for comment.

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