Blue Prism expands RPA platform with Thoughtonomy acquisition

Blue Prism has announced the acquisition of Thoughtonomy to further expand its Robotic Process Automation (RPA) platform. Thoughtonomy is a startup that has developed a cloud-based artificial intelligence (AI) engine that delivers RPA-based solutions on a SaaS framework.

Blue Prism is down $100 million for the acquisition of Thoughtonomy. This is the first time that Thoughtonomy has received money from outside: the company has never received financing from third parties, even though there was some interest. CEO Terry Walby tells TechCrunch that the company has been approached on a daily basis since the intelligent automation market has grown considerably. “But the best outcome for the company and our customers is not just about accepting money and news items that report our appreciation.

Takeover

The acquisition comes about half a year after Blue Prism announced that it would raise approximately $130 million in order to continue to grow. Linda Dotts, the senior vice president of global partner strategy and programs, now claims that that money has indeed been raised. Part of it is now being used to take over Thoughtonomy. In addition, Dotts said that the company is looking at other opportunities.

Blue Prism and Thoughtonomy already worked together on the acquisition. Thoughtonomy is also a partner with companies like Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. These parties are used to provide the services of Thoughtonomy. The idea is that the startup should help Blue Prism to take its services to the next level from where RPA is going.

“We offer architectural support and add intelligence. Our platform tackles activities that require understanding or interpretation, so it extends the use cases for RPA beyond the structured processes,” says Walby. Blue Prism, in turn, is more of a legacy provider, which is a clear consequence of the fact that the company was an early player in the RPA market.