Signalling the resistance of the robotic process automation market despite a poorly performing economy, RPA solutions provider Blue Prism announced that it has raised over $124 million in equity financing at a valuation of around $1.24 billion. According to CEO Jason Kingdon, a bulk of the capital will go into bolstering the company's automation suite. Just last month, Blue Prism had launched a COVID-19 response task team to perform a variety of functions. This team has been working with the UK's National Health Service, University of California, and the Leeds Building Society to automate personnel, vaccine development, finance, and related health care support functions. "Our RPA solution is more important than ever in this environment," Kingdon said in a report. "The impact of this pandemic is unknown, and as a result, we are taking action to invest and reinforce our product differentiation in preparation for the opportunities that will occur," he added.

Gartner Inc. this week published its first Magic Quadrant for the robotic process automation software market, shining a light on the leading players and key trends in the rapidly growing technology segment. RPA relates to the use of software with artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities to handle high-volume, repeatable tasks that previously required humans to perform. These tasks can include queries, calculations and maintenance of records and transactions. RPA software relies on robots that can mimic a human worker by logging into an application, entering data or calculating and completing tasks and then logging out once the task is done. The technology is believed to save companies huge amounts of time and money, so it's not much of a surprise to see Gartner estimating the market for this type of software will reach $2.4 billion a year by 2024, from just $850 million today.

Robotic process automation (RPA) is a family of technologies designed to replicate human actions in order to complete a task or series of tasks. Unlike traditional programming constructs, RPA is designed to allow everyday workers to quickly deploy virtual counterparts to learn from and mimic the actions they use to accomplish routine tasks, therefore freeing the worker to handle more complex, and in some cases, more fulfilling work activities. According to a new report from Tractica, the market for RPA is developing rapidly, and the market intelligence firm forecasts that worldwide revenue in the sector will increase from $151 million in 2016 to more than $5.1 billion by 2025. The key industry sectors that are embracing RPA implementations include financial services & banking, utilities & telecommunications, retail & commercial, and healthcare & insurance. The market opportunity for RPA will be largest in Europe during the forecast period, with Asia Pacific and North America not far behind.