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M&A List: 20 Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Software Mergers and Acquisitions

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The fast-growing robotic process automation (RPA) software market continues to generate strong merger and acquisition (M&A) activity. An expansive RPA M&A deal list, updated regularly by ChannelE2E, is below.

What's driving all the RPA M&A activity? The short answer involves customer demand: The global RPA software market is expected to reach $13.74 billion by 2028, up from $1.57 billion in 2020. The market’s compound annual growth rate from 2021 to 2028 is expected to be 32.8%, Grand View Research predicts.

RPA software allows businesses to write code and bots that rapidly automate manual tasks across multiple departments — from IT service desks to HR, finance, customer support and more.

Much of the RPA software industry focuses on enterprise customers. Still, RPA may even eventually catch on in the SMB market as MSPs seek to further automate internal and customer operations.

RPA software providers such as Automation AnywhereBlue PrismUiPath and Microsoft Power Automate frequently dominate headlines. But M&A activity is also influencing the market. And upstarts such as ElectroNeek and Rewst are striving to deliver RPA into the MSP and SMB markets.

RPA Mergers and Acquisitions: Deal List

Here's a list of M&A deals and investments that ChannelE2E has tracked.

20. October 2022: Neostella acquired Work-Relay.

19. August 2022: Vergence Solutions acquired IT consulting firm Abstract Technology Group.

18. August 2022: UiPath acquired Re:infer to further blend natural language processing (NLP) with RPA and workflow automation software. The core goal: Allow partners and customers to “mine, monitor and automate every conversation.”

17. July 2022: Accounting firm RubinBrown acquired Himes Consulting Group, a provider of CRM (customer relationship management) and RPA (robotic process automation) consulting services.

16. February 2022: Nintex, backed by private equity firms TPG Capital, acquired Kryon.

15. December 2021:  SS&C Technologies acquired Blue Prism Group, beating out private equity firm Vista Equity Partners in a bidding war for the RPA software business.

14. October 2021: Private equity firm TPG Capital acquired Nintex. The seller, Thoma Bravo, will make a new equity investment in Nintex and maintain a “significant” minority interest in the business.

13. August 2021: Salesforce acquired Servicetrace RPA to counter ServiceNow in workflow automation.

12. March 2021: UiPath acquired Cloud Elements, which develops an API integration platform.

11. March 2021: ServiceNow acquired Intellibot, and will inject RPA technology into the NOW platform.

10. November 2020: QA Mentor acquired Step One Step Ahead, an RPA software consulting firm.

9. October 2020: Automation software provider Netcall acquired RPA software company Automagica.

8. October 2020: Nintex, backed by private equity firm Thoma Bravo, acquired K2 Software Inc.

7. October 2020: Midis SI Group acquired MAGNOOS Information Systems, an RPA consulting firm & Automation Anywhere partner.

6. August 2020: Hyland Software, backed by private equity firm Thoma Bravo, acquired Another Monday.

5. July 2020: IBM acquired WDG.

4. July 2020: UiPath raised $225 million in Series E funding.

3. July 2020: Information Services Group (ISG) acquired RPA technology educator Neuralify. The goal: Help customers accelerate RPA developer education & automation projects.

2. May 2020: Microsoft acquired Softomotive for Robotic Process Automation (RPA). Vows to ensure all partners can “create bots to automate manual business processes.”

1. February 2020: Private equity firm Abry Partners invested in Asignet, an MSP that’s preparing a robotic process automation (RPA) software platform called Robot4IT.

What RPA M&A deals did we miss? Post a comment or email me details: [email protected].

Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri is co-founder & editorial director of MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E, the two leading news & analysis sites for managed service providers in the cybersecurity market.