Gartner Inc. today published new data on the state of the robotic process automation field, saying revenue for the red-hot market jumped 63% in the past year.

The influx of money means the RPA industry is now the fastest-growing enterprise software segment, though with a total market value of $846.2 million, it’s still some way behind other, more established software categories.

Gartner said RPA is growing quickly because it helps companies to automate an array of previously manual business processes such as inputting data, without needing to replace their legacy computing systems.

Of course, that means companies get to save money, and not only thanks to the time saved by eliminating the need to perform such tasks manually. RPA is therefore proving to be particularly popular with enterprises that still maintain larger amounts of legacy IT infrastructure, including banks, insurance firms and utility companies.

”The ability to integrate legacy systems is the key driver for RPA projects,” said Gartner Research Vice President Fabrizio Biscotti. “By using this technology, organizations can quickly accelerate their digital transformation initiatives, while unlocking the value associated with past technology investments.”

UiPath Inc., which most recently raised $568 million in venture capital funding and is valued at $7 billion, is the biggest winner in the RPA market so far. The company is growing at an incredible rate, with revenue rising by 629% from just $15.7 million in 2018 to $114.8 million last year. And it leads the overall RPA market with a 13.6% market share, Gartner said.

Also doing well is Automation Anywhere Inc., another so-called “unicorn” that’s valued at $2.6 billion after raising $300 million in its most recent funding round, led by Japan’s SoftBank Group. Between them, the two companies have raised over $1.5 billion in funding. Automation Anywhere isn’t far behind UiPath when it comes to revenue either, with the company reportedly seeing sales of $108.4 million in 2018, earning it a 12.8% share of the market.

Several other startups in the market are worth watching too. Blue Prism Group Plc. for example, saw its revenue double in 2018, to $71 million, from $34.6 million the year before, and currently sits in third place in terms of market share. NTT-ATT and Kofax Inc. have also enjoyed substantial growth, with revenue rising in the last year by 456% and 256%, respectively.

The RPA market is still very much in its infancy, which means there’s lots of room for startups to grow. But Gartner said it expects to see consolidation in the future, as the larger players try gobble up the smaller fry to obtain a greater market share, and more established firms such as Microsoft Corp. and IBM Corp. attempt to muscle their way into the market.

Image: Chirag Bhayani/Flickr