David Moss

Blue Prism is a company that developed and produces workplace robotic process automation (RPA) software, which offers a virtual workforce for automating complex, end-to-end operational tasks. This RPA tool has the ability to create a software-powered virtual workforce. The company enables businesses to automate business processes flexibly and economically.

About The Company

Founded in 2001, Blue Prism is headquartered in Warrington, UK. It also has regional offices in Australia and USA. The company is famous for developing the robotic process automation market. It is a listed company on the London Stock Exchange.

Blue Prism operates on the technology of Microsoft .NET Framework. It supports all platforms like Windows, WPF, mainframe, web, Java, etc., and automates any application when presented in several ways.

History

A team of process automation specialists established Blue Prism in 2001 with the goal of creating technology that would increase organisations’ productivity and effectiveness. At first, they concentrated on the back office, where they discovered a huge unmet need for automation. Alastair Bathgate and David Moss co-founded the business to offer a novel strategy now referred to as RPA. Robotic process automation (RPA) is the use of technology to give businesses a digital workforce that adheres to rule-based business processes and communicates with their systems in a manner similar to that of their current users. Blue Prism coined the expression “Robotic Process Automation”. Automate, the company’s first commercially available product was introduced in 2003. The second iteration of Automate, which included functionality for massive processing, was launched in 2005. Blue Prism software was first used by Co-operative Financial Services in 2005 to automate manual customer care operations.

In 2016, the company launched its initial public offering (IPO) when it debuted on the London Stock Exchange with a market valuation of £48.5 million. Under CEO Alastair Bathgate, the company’s shares increased 44% on the initial day of the listing. The company’s clients include Fidelity Investment Management, O2, and Co-operative Bank. By 2016, it also established offices in Miami and Chicago in addition to the UK.

Acquisition

In 2021, the purchase of Blue Prism by Vista Equity Partners for $1.5 billion was announced. Vista wanted to combine TIBCO Software and Blue Prism. According to reports, Vista was thinking of cutting 8 to 10% of the combined companies’ around 4,750 employees from their payroll. The initial acquisition agreement was initially disclosed in December 2021, when SS&C and Vista engaged in a bidding war that increased the price. Shareholders of Blue Prism finally chose to support SS&C. In 2022, SS&C Technologies stated that it had successfully acquired Blue Prism for about $1.6 billion.

Founders – David Moss, Alastair Bathgate

Alastair Bathgate and David Moss co-founded the Blue Prism Group in 2001. Alastair served as the company’s CEO from that time until 2020. The then-unmet requirement for organisational process automation led to the creation of Blue Prism. The company expanded from serving a single client, the UK bank Barclays, to becoming a global powerhouse with 2,000 clients spread over 120 countries and 70 different industrial sectors, including healthcare, financial services, and the public sector.

CEO – Jason Kingdon

Jason Kingdon is the CEO and Chairman of Blue Prism. He joined the company in 2008 as the Executive Chairman. He has co-founded numerous AI startups. He was a co-founder of the Intelligent Systems Lab at UCL, where he pioneered the usage of a neural network in real-time financial forecasting. He has also served as CEO and co-founder of Searchspace, a business that used artificial intelligence to detect insider trading at banking institutions and stock exchanges and money laundering. Kingdon earned a pure mathematics undergraduate degree from the Queen Mary University of London and a master’s degree from the University of Bristol.