Sequoia-backed enterprise RPA firm UiPath looks to grow India footprint

US-headquartered firm UiPath, which offers robotic process automation (RPA) solutions for enterprises, said it plans to expand operations in India as it announced the completion of a $225-million (around Rs 1,630 crore) Series C round of funding.

In a statement, UiPath said it will look to boost its local product development capabilities by growing its Indian workforce from 250 at present to 1,200 by the end of next year.

The New York-based company intends to expand its presence in eight Indian cities including Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad and Kolkata, while ramping up its workforce across all functions in Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Gurugram.

“We aim to expand our domestic sales, pre-sales, support and channel development organisations in the Indian market to ensure a seamless experience for our customers and partners,” said Rajeev Mittal, managing director-India at UiPath.

“While adoption of RPA is ripe in global shared services (global in-house centers) and IT services/ BPO sectors, both of which have significant presence in India, Indian enterprises are actively looking at RPA to accelerate digital transformation,” he added.

The firm’s latest investment round was co-led by existing investor CapitalG and new backer Sequoia Capital. Existing investor Accel Partners also contributed to the round that values the company at $3 billion.

In all, UiPath has thus far raised more than $400 million from a bunch of investors including Earlybird’s Digital East Fund, Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, Credo Ventures and Seedcamp.

It raised Series A funding in April last year at a valuation of $140 million. The firm was valued at $1.1 billion when it received $153 million in March this year in its Series B round.

UiPath has more than 1,800 global customers and is adding six new enterprise customers per day, it said.

The company expects annual recurring revenue at the end of 2018 to increase by more than four times compared to the end of 2017.

With a presence in 14 countries, UiPath said it will likely end 2018 with more than 1,700 employees, a three-fold increase in 12 months, with operations in 30 offices across 16 countries.

“We strongly believe that RPA is a primary route for organisations to benefit from AI,” said Laela Sturdy, partner at CapitalG, the growth equity fund floated by Google’s parent firm Alphabet Inc.

As a sector, RPA has been increasingly attracting investors and enterprises across the world.

In July, Silicon Valley-based RPA firm Automation Anywhere, which has Indian-origin founders, raised $250 million in one of the largest-ever Series A rounds. The company received a post-money valuation of $1.8 billion.