The RPA company that proved enterprises will pay billions to automate their most boring tasks. Automation Anywhere and UiPath essentially created a new software category — software robots that do the mind-numbing computer work humans hate. With $1.1 billion raised and thousands of enterprise customers, the business is real. The question is whether generative AI makes RPA obsolete or supercharges it. Automation Anywhere is betting on "supercharges" — combining bots with AI to handle tasks that pure automation couldn't touch.
Founded
2003
HQ
San Jose, CA
Total Raised
$1.1B
Founder
Ankur Kothari, Mihir Shukla
Status
Private — valued at approximately $6.8 billion. Filed for IPO but withdrew in 2024.
Website
www.automationanywhere.comTHE ORIGIN STORY
Ankur Kothari and Mihir Shukla founded Tethys Solutions (later Automation Anywhere) in 2003, initially building automation tools for IT departments. The breakthrough came when they realized that every enterprise had thousands of employees doing repetitive computer tasks — copying data from one spreadsheet to another, entering invoices, processing claims — that could be automated without changing existing systems.
RPA bots sit on top of existing software and mimic human actions: clicking buttons, typing data, reading screens. No coding required.
WHAT THEY ACTUALLY DO
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) platform that automates repetitive business tasks using software bots. These bots can log into applications, copy data between systems, fill out forms, process invoices, and handle any repetitive computer-based task that a human would otherwise do.
Revenue comes from enterprise software subscriptions based on the number of bots deployed. The pitch: every employee gets a digital assistant that handles the boring stuff.
THE PRODUCTS
Automation 360 (cloud-native RPA platform), AARI (Automation Anywhere Robotic Interface — human-bot collaboration), IQ Bot (AI-powered document processing), Process Discovery (AI identifies automation opportunities), Bot Store (marketplace of pre-built automations), and CoE Manager (Center of Excellence management tools).
HOW THEY GREW
AI integration. Automation Anywhere's answer to the AI threat is to embrace it: combining RPA bots with AI/LLM capabilities to create "intelligent automation." Bots that can understand documents, make decisions, and handle exceptions — not just follow scripts.
The platform has added process discovery (AI identifies what to automate), document understanding (AI reads unstructured documents), and generative AI assistants. Enterprise customers want both: RPA for structured tasks, AI for unstructured ones.
THE HARD PART
UiPath. The Romanian-founded competitor grew faster, went public first, and captured more market share.
The three-way battle between Automation Anywhere, UiPath, and Blue Prism (acquired by SS&C) dominated the RPA market. As AI and LLMs became mainstream, the RPA market faced an existential question: will AI agents make bots obsolete?
If ChatGPT can understand and execute natural language instructions, do you still need pre-programmed bots that mimic mouse clicks?
MONEY TRAIL
Series A
2018 · Led by NEA, Goldman Sachs, General Atlantic
$250M raised
Series B
2019 · Led by SoftBank Vision Fund, Salesforce Ventures
$290M raised
Growth
2021 · Led by Goldman Sachs, Salesforce
$200M raised
WHO BACKED THEM
SoftBank Vision Fund, Salesforce Ventures, Goldman Sachs, General Atlantic, and NEA backed Automation Anywhere.
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