Uptake Technologies
- 🦄Became a unicorn2015
- 📈Peak valuation$2.3 Billion ’17
- 💔Became a Unitard2018
- 💸Last valuation~$115M
How it happened
Uptake Technologies, a Chicago industrial-AI startup co-founded by Groupon's Brad Keywell, built predictive-maintenance software for heavy industry and ranked among the Midwest's most celebrated unicorns, hitting a $2.3B valuation in a 2017 Series D led by Baillie Gifford. Then anchor partner Caterpillar pulled out, customers were slow to materialize, and Uptake shrank for years; Baillie Gifford wrote off its stake by 2025, and Bosch agreed to buy the company in 2026 for undisclosed terms. Glassdoor reviews from those years described a revolving door of executives and over-hiring-then-layoff cycles — staff promoted only to be told months later their roles were redundant — and many faulted leadership for a years-long identity crisis over where Uptake fit.
Employee accounts paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor ↗. See our methodology.
Source: Wikipedia / TechStartups / Baillie Gifford filings (Chicago industrial-AI/predictive-maintenance startup founded by Brad Keywell; reached a $2.3B valuation on a 2017 Series D led by Baillie Gifford with Revolution Growth and GreatPoint; Caterpillar pulled its investment, the company laid off staff and shrank for years; Baillie Gifford wrote off its holding in the year to March 2025, and Bosch agreed to acquire Uptake in 2026 at undisclosed terms far below its peak)