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Uptake Technologies

Industrial AIUSA
New to Unitard
🤝 Acquired
Peak $2.3 BillionToday
~-95%
from peak
  1. 🦄
    Became a unicorn
    2015
  2. 📈
    Peak valuation
    $2.3 Billion ’17
  3. 💔
    Became a Unitard
    2018
  4. 💸
    Last valuation
    ~$115M
Current status
Baillie Gifford wrote off its stake by 2025; agreed to be acquired by Bosch in 2026 at undisclosed (small) terms

The rise & fall

8 moments · 2014–2026

The key moments, with employee sentiment along the way.

2014
Founded in Chicago
Groupon co-founder Brad Keywell's next act: predictive-maintenance AI that tells heavy machines when they're about to break.
Wikipedia
2015
Joins the unicorn club
Barely a year in, with Caterpillar as anchor partner, Uptake is valued north of $1B — the Midwest's proudest startup.
Wikipedia
2017
The peak: $2.3B$2.3B
A Series D led by Baillie Gifford, with Revolution Growth and GreatPoint, crowns the industrial-AI darling.
Wikipedia
2018
Out of the club
Anchor partner Caterpillar pulls out and customers are slow to materialize; the shine comes off fast.
Wikipedia
2019–24
Years of shrinking
Layoffs and retrenchment as the celebrated platform hunts for a market that never quite arrives.
TechStartups
From the inside · Glassdoor reviews, 2018–24
Glassdoor reviews from those years described a revolving door of executives and cycles of over-hiring followed by layoffs — staff promoted only to be told months later their roles were redundant — and a leadership many felt spent years unable to decide what Uptake actually was.
2025
Baillie Gifford writes it to zero
The Series D lead marks its entire stake off in the year to March 2025.
Baillie Gifford filings
2026
Acquired by Bosch — terms undisclosed, far below the peak
The $2.3B Midwest champion exits quietly.
TechStartups

💬 entries paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor ↗; dated facts carry their source.

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.

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)

Founders

  • Brad Keywell
    Co-founder & CEO (later Executive Chairman)
    LinkedIn ↗
  • Eric Lefkofsky
    co-founder (also co-founded Groupon)
    No public profile matched

Disclosed investors (8)

Historical funding participation; lists may be incomplete and do not establish current ownership or investor losses.

* Lead in a funding round · Crunchbase ↗ · 2026-10-13 · Methodology · Leaderboard

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