Getting to the bottom of UiPath’s plunging valuation

Image Credits: Bloomberg / Getty Images

UiPath was one of the most favored startups a year ago. The company raised $750 million in February of last year. The robotic process automation company was firing on all cylinders.

The final private price of UiPath looked a bit pricey when it went public last year. The company's early IPO price range was underneath its last valuation, but after raising that range and pricing above it, the unicorn was still valued at a modest deficit to that $35 billion figure.

The company was able to hit the price set by its round worth three-quarters of a billion dollars on its first day of trading. The CFO of the company spoke with the website about the method of going public at that time, and the timing of its debut for more context.

The value of UiPath shot up to as much as $90 per share, pushing its valuation to $43 billion per YCharts data.

Things have gone poorly for UiPath since then. The company was down over 3% at $18.29 per share on Friday afternoon. What went wrong with UiPath?

The first hypothesis is that the company got caught up in a broad repricing of technology revenues by public-market investors, and if it explains the UiPath valuation declines would put the technology concern in good company. There could be a technology-related explanation. Both factors could be at play at the same time.

Let's first talk numbers and then discuss the tech side of the coin to understand what may have happened with UiPath.

Did UiPath just get hit by the market’s technology repricing?

UiPath is on the move. In the fourth quarter of the company's fiscal year, which ended on January 31, 2022, the market leader reported revenues of $289.7 million in total revenue and a quarter-ending annual recurring revenue of $925.3 million. The public markets have changed their minds about the value of software revenue.