(Alliance News) - Blue Prism Group PLC unveiled a new GBP80 million acquisition on Wednesday, as it also reported a widened interim loss.
Robotics firm Blue Prism has bought Thoughtonomy, a software-as-a-service-based product and cloud services business. Some GBP63 million will be paid in Blue Prism shares, and the rest in cash.
Thoughtonomy was founded in 2013, and has 77 direct customers and around 200 indirect clients worldwide, Blue Prism said.
Blue Prism's Chief Executive Alastair Bathgate commented: "I am very pleased to announce this strategic acquisition; which provides Blue Prism with a turnkey SaaS product which combines the power of the connected-robotic process automation with a fully integrated suite of premium quality AI and RPA capabilities, on demand.
"The product is available to customers without the overhead of setting up a dedicated infrastructure and as a result is ideal in serving the mid-tier of the market. We believe the cloud will grow in importance across our enterprise customer base, and this acquisition will also help further our development of enterprise-based cloud products."
Turning to Blue Prism's financials, for the six months to April revenue rose 82% to GBP41.6 million, with the number of deals rising 63% to 911 and new customer wins by 57% to 349.
Blue Prism's pretax loss, however, widened significantly, to GBP34.4 million from GBP5.5 million. A sharp rise in operating expenses was mainly due to increased investment internationally.
Bathgate commented: "I am delighted with our progress in the first half of 2019, with an increase in deal momentum driven by the new commercial framework which we introduced to make Blue Prism easier to adopt. We have a good track record of helping customers scale, which provides an opportunity to upsell this new cohort.
"The RPA market continues to develop into a significant software category, and we are increasingly well positioned to capitalise on this. We are investing into this opportunity, including the acquisition of Thoughtonomy, announced today, which is an important step in targeting the mid-tier and developing our enterprise cloud approach."
Blue Prism expects to meet annual expectations, it said, with Thoughtonomy set to provide a boost to revenue.
Shares were 6.3% lower on Wednesday morning at a price of 1,640.20 pence each.
