Automation Anywhere raises $300 mn from SoftBank Vision Fund

Automation Anywhere, a provider of robotic process automation (RPA), Friday said it has raised USD 300 million (about Rs 2,154 crore) from the SoftBank Vision Fund.

The funding is subject to regulatory approvals and satisfaction of other customary closing conditions and is an expansion to the company's series A round announced in July, Automation Anywhere said in a statement.

In July, Automation Anywhere had said it had raised USD 250 million in funding, led by New Enterprise Associates and Goldman Sachs Growth Equity.

RPA technology refers to use of software robots (bots) to automate business processes that are currently managed manually by human workers.

"RPA is the most pervasive and frictionless path to delivering AI technologies across the enterprise, and is revolutionising the way people work. With this additional capital, we are in a position to do far more than any other provider," Automation Anywhere CEO and co-founder Mihir Shukla said.

Praveen Akkiraju, managing partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers, said enterprises of all sizes are in the mid of a major transition to digital platforms and SoftBank is excited to partner with Automation Anywhere to accelerate this transformation.

Automation Anywhere has opened its Bot Store, an app store-like marketplace of downloadable bot applications that are designed by the company and its partner ecosystem to meet specific automation requirements for common business processes.

"With more than USD 500 million in capital from the series A round, we believe we have the strongest balance sheet in the industry and are well positioned to continue to solve our customers' problems in innovative new ways," Clyde Hosein, Chief Financial Officer at Automation Anywhere, said.