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bne Tech
May 3, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 24
Bucharest-born UiPath raises $568mn in new funding round sending valuation to $7bn
UiPath, a robotic process automation (RPA) company founded by two Romanian entrepreneurs, announced on April 30 that it has raised $568mn in funding that raises its valuation to $7bn.
At the $7bn valuation, UiPath is one of the fastest growing and highest-valued AI enterprise soft- ware companies worldwide, the company said in an April 30 announcement.
The latest funding round was led by tech-focussed hedge fund Coatue, which invested alongside Dragoneer, Wellington, Sands Capital, and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. Accel, who led the Series A and Series B rounds, and CapitalG and Sequoia who led the Series C round. Other existing investors, including IVP and Madrona Venture Group, also participated in the latest round.
Although it was founded in Romania, UiPath is now an international company, with headquarters in New York, and offices in several major West Eu- ropean cities, Dubai and the Far East, as well as Bucharest. Its CEO and co-founder Daniel Dines is a graduate of the University of Bucharest and
a former Microsoft engineer.
“We are at the tipping point. Business leaders everywhere are augmenting their workforces with software robots, rapidly accelerating the digital transformation of their entire business and free- ing employees to spend time on more impactful work. UiPath is leading this workforce revolution, driven by our core determination to democratise RPA and deliver on our vision of a robot helping every person,” Dines said.
Read the full story here Russian driver booking service Wheely raises
$15mn
Russian online driver booking service Whee-
ly raised $15mn from the British venture fund Concentric and several private investors, Vedomo- sti daily reported on April 26 citing the represent- atives of the company and new investors.
Carsharing, car-pooling and online taxi booking is an emerging business in Russia, attracting invest- ment and already subject to fierce competition. The total car sharing and taxi market in 2017-2025 will grow 2.5-fold to RUB1.6 trillion ($24bn), as estimated by Sberbank CIB.
Wheely was launched in 2010 in Zurich, entered the Moscow market in 2012, and currently oper-
ates in London, Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, Kazan, Sochi, Perm, and Yekaterinburg. It connects 3,500 drivers on Mercedes and BMW vehicles with the riders and get a 20% commission.
The founder of the service Anton Chirkunov esti- mates the annual revenues of the service at $80mn, out of which 15% accounts for London. The investors of Wheely include such e-entrepreneurs as OneT- woTrip of Mikhail Sokolov, as well as the founder of the digital Bank 131 Dmitri Eremeev and co-founder of photobank Fotolio Oleg Cheltsov. The funds raised will be used to scale the service up and launch in new cities such as Paris in 2019. The share of the founder Chirkunov will remain over 50%.