UiPath CEO Daniel Dines. (UiPath Photo)

The news: UiPath had one of the biggest IPOs ever for a U.S. software company, raising $1.3 billion as it debuted on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday. Shares rose 17% when the market opened, valuing the company at $34 billion.

UiPath background: Founded in 2005, UiPath builds technology called Robotic Process Automation, or RPA. It involves systems that use AI to learn and then take over routine and mundane software processes and business workflows from human workers.

The company’s revenue spiked 81% last year to $607.6 million, while losses shrunk to $92.4 million from $519.9 million in 2019. UiPath had nearly 8,000 customers as of Jan. 31, including 61% of the Fortune Global 500. The company raised nearly $2 billion from private backers, including a $750 million Series F round in February.

Seattle-area connections: UiPath employs more than 100 people at a R&D hub in Bellevue, Wash., nearby Microsoft’s headquarters. UiPath CEO Daniel Dines previously worked at Microsoft for nearly five years before launching UiPath.

Seattle venture capital firm Madrona Venture Group is an investor in UiPath, having participated in a Series C round in 2018. That’s when Madrona Managing Director S. “Soma” Somasegar, the former leader of Microsoft’s Developer Division, joined the company’s board.

In a blog post, Somasegar detailed the reasons why Madrona invested — customer focus; secular trends such as software automation; etc. — and also shared his lessons learned from the UiPath journey. From the post:

  • UiPath took a bold approach of an international footprint – for its team and for its customer base right from day 1. That ended up being a fantastic differentiator for UiPath.
  • UiPath had a ‘land grab’ approach to capture both mindshare and market share as they realized the opportunity to create and lead a new category.
  • UiPath had an amazing appetite to grow and scale. At some point in time, that became an issue as the culture had grown to “grow at all costs” and Daniel and his leadership team did a great job of shifting that to ‘grow in a fiscally responsible way.’
  • UiPath had a founder-led culture that was a great combination of confidence and humility. ‘Be bold and humble’ is something that I have heard Daniel mention 100s of times during these past few years.
Like what you're reading? Subscribe to GeekWire's free newsletters to catch every headline

Job Listings on GeekWork

Find more jobs on GeekWork. Employers, post a job here.