Each month (or so), we look at what has been happening from an investment and M&A viewpoint in our world of Information and Automation Management. We can say that despite the recession and layoffs, the market remains quite vibrant. Alkymi scored $21m in Series A funding led by Intel Capital this past week. That is a lot of money for a content intelligence vendor in this market. Beyond validating the company, it tells us plenty of interest and cash is available for the right startups.
RPA vendor Automation Anywhere also raised a lot of money recently, $200m to be exact, though that investment is in the form of debt financing. So there may be another round to come. Still, with total investment in Automation Anywhere around the $1B mark, it will be interesting to watch where they go here, particularly in a market where IPOs are rare beasts.
The biggest deal of the past month or so, probably the past year, was OpenText’s acquisition of troubled UK firm Microfocus for $6B. We wrote about this deal separately; you can read our thoughts here. However, whether this deal is one related to Information & Automation Management is an open question, as the vast portfolio of Microsofocus products includes everything from Cobol tools to mobile testing tools.
Other albeit smaller deals that caught our attention over the past month include:
Accusoft, the document processing firm, acquired document-viewing veteran Snowbound
US BPM vendor ProcessMaker acquired document processing vendor Doculayer.ai
Vital Records Control (backed by Windjammer Capital) acquired fellow records management vendor 2-20
CTS acquired iManage partner Tiger Eye
UK-based Agilico acquired fellow UK firm Capital Document Solutions
Accounting firm Wolters Kluwer acquired document processing vendor Basecone
Mid West automation Neostella firm acquired fellow Mid West BPM firm Work-Relay
Automation services firm Roboyo acquired Lean Consulting
So for all the doom and gloom, plenty is going on in our markets – money raised, firms changing hands. As always, it’s more than possible that we missed a few deals, and we welcome any feedback.
If you are an investor in enterprise software technology firms, we have a free – yup, free – confidential advisory service for you. A service that means all you have to do is find a time on our calendar.
If you are looking to sell your enterprise technology software business. Again feel free to reach out and chat with us, as we may be able to help by providing some critical but constructive advice and support.