Automation vendor WorkFusion raises $220 million

Intelligent automation vendor WorkFusion raised $220 million amid an uptick in funding for robotic process automation and enterprise automation vendors.

"Clearly, the investor love affair with the RPA and enterprise automation opportunity is continuing," said Kashyap Kompella, CEO of RPA2AI Research.

RPA vendor UiPath recently raised $750 million in a bid to file an IPO, while competitor Automation Anywhere raised $290 million at the end of 2019.

"Hundreds of million of dollars are late-stage growth capital -- required to run the last few laps before an eventual paycheck for the investors, founders and employees," Kompella said. "That's what we are currently seeing."

Fintech investing company Georgian led WorkFusion's latest funding round. The investment brings the valuation of WorkFusion, founded in 2010 and based in New York, to more than $340 million.

As opposed to UiPath and Automation Anywhere, which sell easy-to-use automation products aimed at citizen developers, WorkFusion sells a "cognitive automation" platform that requires more skill and expertise. The platform can tackle more challenging automation problems that require machine learning, Kompella said.

The vendor's traditional strengths have been its advanced document intelligence and extraction capabilities and automated machine learning functionality, he noted.

WorkFusion mainly sells to financial institutions; it lists Deutsche Bank, Scotiabank and Standard Bank as some of its largest customers. However, the automation vendor's customers also include companies in a variety of other industries, including healthcare, insurance and transportation.

Despite the excitement about automation technologies, enterprises are still in the early days of adopting the technologies, Kompella said.

Clearly, the investor love affair with the RPA and enterprise automation opportunity is continuing.

While finance companies are "quite sophisticated tech shops," early adopters of these technologies need more mature IT capabilities, he added.

The latest round of funding for WorkFusion could help it expand to new customers and industries.

Historically, the top three enterprise automation vendors have been UiPath, Automation Anywhere and Blue Prism, Kompella said.

However, "I won't be surprised if the new investments help WorkFusion finally break it into the top three," he added.