Manchester-based Peak has been acquired by enterprise automation and AI software company UiPath, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Richard Potter co-founded Peak in 2015 alongside David Leitch and Atul Sharma after a chat in a pub and in August 2021 announced a $75m Series C funding round led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund II.
GP Bullhound advised on the sale to the New York-headquartered tech giant UiPath.
Peak’s CEO Richard Potter said: “When we started Peak, we set out with a bold vision: to help businesses unlock the full potential of AI to drive real-world impact. Today marks a significant milestone on that journey as Peak joins forces with UiPath.
“This marks more than just a new chapter for Peak — it’s a testament to the incredible people who have been part of our story. To our customers, who believed in us and challenged us to push the boundaries of what’s possible.
“To our team, both past and present, whose talent, passion, and relentless dedication have made Peak what it is today. And to our investors, partners, and the Manchester ecosystem, who have all backed us at every step.”
He said joining forces with UiPath was the ‘perfect next step’ for Peak at this time in their journey.
He explained: “As automation and agentic AI converge, we’re entering a new era of possibilities for the enterprise. UiPath’s global reach, deep enterprise expertise, and unwavering commitment to AI innovation will enable us to accelerate our vision – empowering businesses with specialized decision-making AIs at scale.
“We are incredibly proud of what we’ve built, and as part of UiPath, we look forward to delivering even greater value to our customers while pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with AI in the enterprise.”
Potter was recently invited back to Downing Street for an event to celebrate the UK’s AI ecosystem.
Hugh Campbell, founder of GP Bullhound, said: “It’s (UiPath) a great home for this brilliant software company. Yet more evidence that Manchester is building a fantastic tech cluster.”
Peak enables customers to develop AI workflows, process data, and provide predictions that are used to optimise critical business processes through APIs or integrated web applications. It also provides a new breed of AI-based decisioning applications that enable business users to make highly complex decisions such as planning inventory and optimising product pricing decisions.
As part of UiPath, Peak’s solutions can scale globally and reach new industries, ensuring continued growth and innovation for customers and stakeholders. In turn, Peak’s focus on accelerating AI adoption in sectors like retail and manufacturing will enable UiPath to accelerate market growth and deliver vertical-oriented, next-generation AI-driven agentic applications with intelligence powered by LLMs.
Daniel Dines, founder and CEO of UiPath said: “With the acquisition of Peak, we are accelerating our mission to strengthen our vertical AI solutions strategy.
“When combined with the UiPath platform, Peak’s exceptional purpose-built AI applications will enhance our ability to provide solutions that optimise industry-specific use cases and deliver incredible value to customers.”