These startups are automating business tasks from data entry to document review, and could be the next acquisition targets for the world's largest corporations.
Robotic process automation (RPA) is playing a central role in streamlining workplace functions by automating manual, repetitive tasks such as data entry, document review, transaction processing, customer service, and more.
The RPA industry is expected to reach $2.9B by 2021, according to CB Insights’ Market Sizing tool. This could mean further disruption for white-collar jobs, including those in business development, data analytics, and financial accounting. While many roles may benefit from RPA technology, others could be replaced entirely.
We used the CB Insights platform to surface nine potential acquisition targets that offer RPA solutions. Companies were selected based on stage, industry, valuation, recency of funding, investor quality, and Mosaic Score — CB Insights’ algorithm that uses financial and non-financial signals to predict private company health.
While the majority of the organizations on our list are private, we’ve also highlighted two public companies that make for compelling acquisition opportunities. The recent acquisitions of application program interface (API) businesses like Apigee (acquired by Google in September 2016) and Mulesoft (acquired by Salesforce in March 2018) show that the public markets are ripe for consolidation.
