UiPath started in Bucharest, Romania, under the name DeskOver, and kept that name for ten years. Then it found its product: software robots that copy what a person does on a screen. They log into apps, read documents, fill in forms, and move files. Big companies had rooms full of people doing that work by hand. By early 2021, UiPath counted 7,968 customers, including eight of the ten biggest companies in America.

DeskOver Finds Its Robots

Daniel Dines and Marius Tîrcă founded the company in Bucharest in 2005. It took the name UiPath in 2015 and incorporated in Delaware that June. The bet was that most office work runs through screens, and a robot that could see a screen could do much of it. UiPath used computer vision so its robots worked on old systems with no other way in. It moved its headquarters to New York.

A Big New York Debut

UiPath priced at $56 a share on April 20, 2021, and began trading on the NYSE the next day under the ticker PATH. It raised $1.3 billion, and the stock rose 23 percent on its first day. The shares later fell far below the offer price as growth slowed. UiPath turned toward AI agents that plan and carry out work. In 2025 it launched its platform for agentic automation. It is still public on the NYSE.

Cover: A Sunlit Path through a Wood, Thomas Gainsborough. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a sunlit path through a wood.