A rush of agent AI solutions has been hitting the enterprise market, and now one of the bigger players in automation has scooped up the space startups in hopes of winning a larger portion of that market. As part of last night’s quarterly results report, Uipath also provided that it hopes to spell out tougher times ahead and prove the silver lining. It said it acquired Peak.ai, a startup originally founded in Manchester, England.
Peak builds “decision-making” AI, covering features such as pricing and inventory management for retail and manufacturing companies. Daniel Dines, founder and CEO of Uipath, said he is purchasing certain vertically-oriented AI and automation services as part of his strategy to build more AI and automation services.
The terms of the transaction have not been revealed, but the IT-savvy source told TechCrunch that Peak.ai was not looking for a buyer, not the end of the runway, but the transaction was cash. Robert Anton said in an interview that Oxx was one of Peak.ai’s supporters, but he was “very happy” with the outcome.
Peak last raised money in 2021, when Softbank backed the company for $75 million. Pitchbook notes that Round raised a total of $121 million from investors including Money, MMC and Ourcrowd, and valued approximately $267 million in money.
However, according to the last company account filed with Company House in the UK, Peak reported revenue of £9 million ($11.6 million), an increase of 17% from the previous year ended December 31, 2023.
“The peak continued to grow in the global market despite facing strong economic headwinds,” the company said in its submission.
These headwinds are also hitting big companies. Uipath on Wednesday said fourth quarter revenues rose 5% from the previous year to $424 million.
UIPATH broke quarterly net profit analyst estimates, but its 2026 revenue forecast reduced from $1.525 billion to $1.53 billion, citing “increasing global macroeconomic uncertainty.” This has resulted in a decline in the company’s NYSE list stocks. They fell 18% in pre-market trading on Thursday at the time of writing.
The revised forecast follows a tough year for companies that settled 10% of their workforce in July 2024 after lowering full-year expectations for 2025.
Uipath’s market capitalization is currently around $6.5 billion.
Peaks could potentially help new owners to enhance revenue growth. The two companies already had a partnership before the acquisition, but the idea is that the deal will increase the opportunity for UIPath to gain more Peak’s overall revenue, beyond the broader set of solutions for Peak’s customers.
Uipath started with robotic process automation. This allows your business to run more routinely and operate in an automated flow. The company saw unprecedented growth as a startup. “I’ve never seen an enterprise company grow this fast,” one of the investors told us at one point. That growth was hit by a $35 billion valuation when Uipath was still private.
In hindsight, that growth may have written about his desire for AI that is turning corner. But strictly speaking, Uipath’s RPA was not AI. It wasn’t until later that I began to understand how AI fits that photo.
Peak, by contrast, is in an interesting position, catching up with the opportunity to build an AI assistant for the year before Openai comes out into the market and causes wider conversations and a lot of hype about how AI will affect the business world.
But being early meant that AI was selling more difficult sells for startups at times. In an account submission to Companies House, Peak noted that customers view AI as “gambling,” but that perception began to shift in 2023, attracting new interest, particularly in the US manufacturing sector. This creates a more clear channel to its market as Uipath is effectively becoming a US company.
“The ability to seamlessly integrate decision intelligence with automation provides an unprecedented opportunity to redefine the way businesses operate,” Peak’s three founders, Richard Potter, CEO, David Reich, and Atul Sharma, CTO, said in a message announcing the acquisition today.
At the very least, the pitch is the seamless integration and the delighted audience of buyers. I hope that it will endure.
“The Peak acquisitions accelerate our mission to strengthen our vertical AI solutions strategy,” the statement said. “When combined with the UIPATH platform, Peak’s exceptional dedicated AI applications enhance our ability to optimize industry-specific use cases and provide solutions that provide incredible value to our customers.”
We are still looking for details on the transaction price. Please contact me if you have any information.