Romanian billionaire Daniel Dines still owns 5% of the company he founded, UiPath, but still retains decision-making control in the company, according to the listing of the global Romanian-American decacorn.
UiPath is to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol PATH, through an initial public offering (IPO). Conformable prospectus listing, the founder Daniel Solomon Dines (49 years old), who is also the chief executive officer and president of the company, still has 5% of the shares. Given that UiPath was valued at $ 35 billion in the last round of investments, of $ 750 million, it can be said that Dines currently owns shares of $ 1.75 billion, which makes him considered the richest Romanian. Conformable Forbes Romania, brothers Dragoș and Adrian Pavăl (Dedeman) together have a fortune valued at 7.5 billion lei (1.82 billion dollars), and Ion Țiriac, 6 billion lei (1.46 billion dollars).
Although he still has only 5% of UiPath, Daniel Dines holds the decision-making control in the shareholders of the Romanian-American company, because his shares, class B, have a voting power 35 times higher than the class A shares.
„As a result, Mr. Dines will have the ability to control the outcome of matters that require shareholder approval, including the election of directors and the approval of significant corporate transactions, such as a merger or other sale of our company or assets.”- writes in the UiPath listing prospectus.
However, the CEO of UiPath raises quite modest ventures in his position, for a global company: his salary for the fiscal year ended on January 31, 2021 was 106,000 dollars, of which 100,000 dollars came from the Romanian subsidiary. In addition to his salary, the company also reimbursed him about $ 100,000 for expenses such as health insurance, meals, gym memberships, personal security, participation in events.
Daniel Dines also raised $ 160 million by selling his shares, following an operation in which UiPath repurchased shares from employees, totaling $ 268.8 million, which took place in 2018 and 2019. .
But how Romanian is the Romanian-American company. Abroad, in all kinds of international charts and analyzes, UiPath is considered a Romanian decacorn, being included in the success stories of European startups. This is especially true in European analyzes. However, in Romania there are enough people who cut from the “patriotic” drive of the press, saying that UiPath is an American company, not a Romanian one.
Indeed, the company is now registered in the US, because otherwise it would not have been able to obtain so many investments ($ 2 billion) and reach the global scale it has. Instead, the document submitted to the American Stock Exchange Supervisory Authority (SEC) emphasizes everywhere the central place of Romania in the life of the decacorn:
- UiPath was founded in 2005 at Bucharest (under the name DeskOver) and was registered in the US state Delaware in 2015, but headquartered in New York.
- According to the situation as of January 31, 2021, UiPath has 2,863 full-time employees, from which 122 are at the New York headquarters and 727 in Bucharest, Romania.
- UiPath has a legal presence in 29 countries, of which the main operations are in USA, Romania and Japan.
- The prospectus also specifies that the founder and head of UiPath, Daniel Dines, is a graduate of the University of Bucharest (Faculty of Mathematics, to be exact).
The executive team led by Daniel Dines (President and CEO) also consists of: Ashim Gupta (Chief Financial Officer), Brad Brubaker (Chief Financial Officer), Thomas Hansen (Chief Revenue Officer) and Ted Kummert, Executive (Vice President of Product and Engineering).
UiPath – financial results
Like many expanding technology companies, UiPath is constantly investing and “burning” resources to develop its cutting-edge technologies and increase its market share. Therefore, the Romanian-American disagreement ended its fiscal year on January 31, 2021, still at a loss, but close to reaching break-even.
On January 31, 2021 he reported revenues of $ 607 million for the fiscal year ended, up much from the previous year, when it had $ 336 million in revenue.
The losses for the last year were $ 92 million, down sharply from the previous year, when UiPath had lost nearly $ 520 million.
Recall that on February 1 UiPath picked up a round of investment of $ 750 million, at a valuation of the company of $ 35 billion. The company’s total investment is about $ 2 billion, before the expected listing on the New York Stock Exchange. .
UiPath was founded by Daniel Dines and Marius Tîrcă, in 2005, in Bucharest, under the name of DeskOver. Dines recruited Tîrcă first as an employee, and then co-opted him as a co-founder. And in the US prospectus, Marius Tîrcă is listed as a “key person”.
UiPath has meanwhile become a world leader in software automation (RPA), solutions that free employees from various companies from repetitive tasks at work to engage in more creative activities. However, the competition on this market is strong, the biggest rivals of the Romanians from UiPath being the companies Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism, NICE, Pegasystems.
UiPath’s clients include: Adobe, Applied Materials, Chevron, CrowdStrike, CVS Health, Deutsche Post DHL, EY, Generali, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Uber Technologies.
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