UiPath ($PRIVATE:UIPATH) is clearly on the right path. Bloomberg reports that a fundraising round could take the robotics startup into decacorn territory, or a $10-billion valuation.
The report notes that recent and past investors include Sequoia and Alphabet's investing division, as well as funds like Coatue Management and Wellington Management. Alternative data shows UIPath growing in scale and getting more social media attention, but with a lot fewer job postings than one might expect.
Headcount is down more than 8% at UiPath, from its peak last year, according to LinkedIn Headcount data.
Part of what may have helped boost headcount for UiPath was a couple of 2019 M&A deals done by the company, which was founded in 2005 by Romanian entrepreneurs Daniel Dines and Marius Tîrcă. But big deals, tend to result in job cuts once some positions are proven unnecessary.
This could be a bit of an industry trend - the Bloomberg report notes that one of UiPath's competitors, Blue Prism, went public in 2016, and that company's alternative data reflects a similar slowdown in LinkedIn headcount (not shown).
In 2018, job postings were soaring at UiPath, which is headquartered in New York. But around the time the company did its last round of funding, it substantially scaled back on job postings and has yet to resume the prior pace. But does it matter? Bloomberg is reporting that the next funding round could increase UIPath's valuation from $7 billion to $10 billion, and hiring doesn't always match the trajectory of a valuation's increase.
The Bloomberg report notes that "UiPath is looking to expand as more companies during the pandemic have been looking to use automation to cut costs," so the job postings could jump back into high gear, like prior years, soon.
And UiPath is certainly getting plenty of attention; our last chart tracks its Facebook Likes, which have grown to roughly 40,000 over the years.
About the Data:
Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales, and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue, and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.
