Enterprise automation software company UiPath has acquired natural language processing (NLP) firm Re:infer for an undisclosed sum.
Founded in 2015 by PhD scientists from the AI research lab at University College London, Re:infer uses machine learning (ML) technology to mine context from communication messages and turn it into data. Re:infer has quite a few notable clients, such as Hiscox, Deutsche Bank, Deloitte, NatWest, UBS and Accenture.
Ted Kummert, Executive Vice President, Products & Engineering at UiPath, explains: “Our customers are awash in documents, communications, and data that they need to understand the meaning of and process efficiently. Combining Re:infer’s NLP technology with our Document Understanding and AI products expands the breadth of our current AI-powered automation capabilities and unlocks new automation opportunities for our customers.”
There’s no mention of any job cuts or changes as part of the deal. Re:infer has 38 employees listed on LinkedIn.
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Re:infer offers a no-code interface that lets business users train their own AI models. Its product capabilities are available to UiPath customers in private preview. Further details will be announced at the UiPath FORWARD 5 conference taking place in Las Vegas in September.
UiPath will be hoping its gamble to buy the UK tech firm pays off. Re:infer has received over $7.6 million (£6 million) in funding from investors including Crane Venture Partners, Seedcamp and IP group.
For UiPath, a much larger beast with its roots in Romania, things are very different.
The firm had raised about $2 billion (£1.6 billion) and was valued $35 billion (£28.5 billion) ahead of its launch on the public markets in April last year, though its market cap on the NYSE now stand at $10.4 billion (£8.4 billion).
Other big names in the RPA space include American firms Kofax and Automation Anywhere. Blue Prism, which is headquartered in Warrington, was acquired by US firm SS&C Technologies for $1.6 billion (£1.25 billion) in March 2022.
Last month, eWeek UK looked at the theme of RPA – with features on the state across the UK, Best Software and Tools, and RPA Companies to Watch.
