All the four co-founders of Automation Anywhere, India’s cutting-edge robotic process automation (RPA) tech start-up whose valuation has zoomed to US 6.8 billion today from just over US$ 1 billion in July 2018, have roots in Palanpur, Banaskantha. 
 

The company, which concluded its Series A funding in July 2018 announced receipt of US$ 290 million in Series B funding at the impressive new valuation. The funding was led by Salesforce Ventures with additional funding from existing investors, including Softbank Investment Advisers and Goldman Sachs.
 

The founders of this ‘Unicorn’ tech company include Mihir Shukla, son of Ramilaben and Sanatbhai Shukla from Palanpur, who was a student of Vidyamandir from LKG to Std 12 and was the district topper in Std 12 Science in 1990. His co-founder Ankur Kothari is the son of Smita and Naren Kothari (Stellar Exports), while Neeti Mehta-Shukla is the daughter of Ilaben and Janakbhai Mehta of Chennai, also originally from Palanpur. Neeti is married to Mihir. The fourth founder was Rushabh Parmani, whose family is originally from Deesa in Banaskantha district.

Shukla, currently the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Kothari, presently the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), Mehta, Senior VP Brand Strategy & Culture Architect and Parmani, EVP, Customer Success and Operations came together in 2003 to set up Automation Anywhere. Today it is recognised as a global leader in the RPA market with over 1,000 enterprise customers worldwide. 

RPA is basically about automating routine, standardised tasks in an organisation using computer software and processes. Driven by digital transformation, RPA has become the fastest growing enterprise software category, according to Gartner, Inc.

"Never before has there been such a transformative shift in the way we work, with artificially intelligent software bots changing how people, processes and technology interact for productivity gains," said Mihir Shukla.

The company now plans to accelerate its vision to empower customers to automate end-to-end business processes – bridging the gap between the front and back office with an artificial intelligence (AI) powered intelligent automation platform. It is also focused on improving human-to-bot collaboration through attended automation, resulting in enhanced customer experiences and increased employee productivity.