Elastic vs UiPath: Founders, CEOs and History
Elastic was founded in 2012 by Shay Banon, Steven Schuurman, Uri Boness and is led by Ashutosh (Ash) Kulkarni. UiPath was founded in 2005 by Daniel Dines, Marius Tîrcă and is led by Daniel Dines.
Company facts
Founders
Elastic
Shay Banon
Shay Banon created the absolute core of the company in 2010 when he wrote Elasticsearch.
Steven Schuurman
Steven Schuurman co-founded Elastic in 2012. As the company's first CEO, he successfully built the commercial business model around Banon's open-source project, scaling the company from a tiny startup into a massively profitable enterprise software provider be…
Uri Boness
Uri Boness co-founded Elastic after working extensively with Shay Banon on search technology.
Simon Willnauer
Simon Willnauer co-founded Elastic, bringing his massive technical expertise as a core developer of Apache Lucene (the underlying search library that Elasticsearch is built upon).
UiPath
Daniel Dines
Daniel Dines is a Romanian software engineer who co-founded the company that became UiPath in Bucharest in 2005.
Marius Tîrcă
Marius Tîrcă co-founded UiPath in 2005 alongside Daniel Dines. As the absolutely critical technical genius behind the platform, he spent nearly a decade in obscurity building the highly robust, deeply complex screen-scraping and computer vision algorithms that…
CEOs and their tenures
Elastic
- Steven Schuurman2012–2017
Chief Executive Officer
As Co-Founder and the original CEO, he guided the company's early, explosive commercialization, securing the massive venture capital required to aggressively expand the sales team globally.
Source - Shay Banon2017–2022
Chief Executive Officer (now Chief Technology Officer)
As the creator of the core product, he served multiple stints as CEO, fiercely defending the company's intellectual property against massive tech giants attempting to monetize it for free.
Source - Ashutosh (Ash) Kulkarni2022–present
Chief Executive Officer
Joined Elastic in 2019 as chief product officer and became CEO in January 2022; previously held product leadership roles at Akamai and McAfee. Led the Search AI repositioning and the push into large multi-year platform deals.
Source
UiPath
- Daniel Dines2005–present
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Led UiPath from a small Bucharest software shop to a public company with $1.6 billion in annual revenue. He was co-CEO from 2022 and Chief Innovation Officer in early 2024 before returning as CEO.
Source - Rob Enslin2022–2024
Co-CEO, then Chief Executive Officer
Recruited from Google Cloud, he served briefly as Co-CEO, bringing absolutely critical enterprise sales discipline to the hyper-growth startup before abruptly resigning in 2024.
Source
Timeline: Elastic and UiPath side by side
2005UiPath
DeskOver founded in Bucharest by Daniel Dines and Marius Tîrcă.
2010Elastic
Shay Banon Releases Elasticsearch 0.4
Open-sourced the first standalone version of Elasticsearch, igniting viral developer adoption.
2012Elastic
Elasticsearch BV (Elastic) Founded in Amsterdam
Shay Banon, Steven Schuurman, Uri Boness, and Simon Willnauer formally established Elastic.
2015Elastic
Launch of Elastic Cloud (Hosted Elasticsearch SaaS)
Introduced managed cloud service, transforming Elastic into a recurring SaaS business.
2015UiPath
Company renamed UiPath after refocusing on robotic process automation.
2017Elastic
Acquired Opbeat & Prelert
Elastic acquired Opbeat & Prelert.
2017UiPath
Series A Funding
UiPath raised $30 million in a Series A round led by Accel in 2017.
2018Elastic
Initial Public Offering on NYSE (Ticker: ESTC)
Listed on the New York Stock Exchange, raising $252 million at a $2.5 billion valuation.
2018UiPath
Unicorn Valuation
UiPath raised $153 million in March 2018 at a valuation of about $1.1 billion.
2019UiPath
Acquired ProcessGold
UiPath acquired ProcessGold.
2021UiPath
UiPath lists on the New York Stock Exchange as PATH.
2022Elastic
Ashutosh Kulkarni Appointed Chief Executive Officer
Chief product officer Ash Kulkarni succeeded Shay Banon as CEO in January 2022; Banon became CTO.
2022UiPath
Acquired Re:infer
UiPath acquired Re:infer.
2023Elastic
Launch of Elasticsearch Vector Database & Hybrid Search for AI
Engineered native vector search and Reciprocal Rank Fusion (RRF) for Generative AI RAG.
2024Elastic
Release of ES|QL (Elasticsearch Pipelined Query Language)
Debuted influential query engine executing complex search, analytics, and security queries in memory.
2024UiPath
Daniel Dines returns as sole CEO after Rob Enslin steps down.
2025UiPath
UiPath acquires Peak, an AI company based in Manchester, UK.
2026Elastic
Fiscal 2026 revenue reaches $1.739 billion
Revenue grew 17% in the year ended April 30, 2026, with $346 million in adjusted free cash flow.
2026Elastic
Elasticsearch Vector Database launched
Released a serverless vector database for large-scale AI search on September 11, 2026.
2026UiPath
UiPath acquires WorkFusion and reports its first profitable fiscal year.
Acquisitions
Elastic
- Keep2025Undisclosed
- Jina AI2025Undisclosed
- Cmd2021Undisclosed
- Optimyze2021Undisclosed
- Endgame, Inc.2019$234M
- Opbeat & Prelert2017Undisclosed
UiPath
- WorkFusion2026Undisclosed
- Peak2025Undisclosed
- Re:infer2022Undisclosed
- ProcessGold2019Undisclosed
Questions about Elastic vs UiPath
Who is the CEO of Elastic and UiPath?
Elastic is led by Ashutosh (Ash) Kulkarni and UiPath is led by Daniel Dines. Both serve as the top executive responsible for the company's strategy, operations, and financial performance.
When was Elastic founded vs UiPath?
UiPath was founded in 2005 — 7 years before Elastic, which was founded in 2012. UiPath's longer operating history gives it a deeper track record but also potentially more institutional inertia compared to the younger Elastic.
How many employees does Elastic have compared to UiPath?
Elastic employs approximately 4,019 people, while UiPath employs approximately 3,868. Elastic has the larger workforce at 4,019 employees, compared to UiPath's 3,868. A higher headcount does not necessarily imply greater efficiency — it often reflects differences in business model (e.g., manufacturing vs. software).
Where are Elastic and UiPath headquartered?
Both Elastic and UiPath are headquartered in United States. Their local rules and tax obligations may still differ.
Who founded Elastic and UiPath?
Elastic was founded by Shay Banon, Steven Schuurman, Uri Boness, Simon Willnauer. UiPath was founded by Daniel Dines, Marius Tîrcă.
Which company has a longer operating history — Elastic or UiPath?
UiPath has been operating for approximately 21 years, making it the more established of the two companies. Elastic has been in operation for around 14 years. A longer operating history often signals greater institutional resilience and brand recognition, though it can also mean slower adaptation to new market conditions.
Figures come from each company's filings and the sources linked beside them. Amounts reported in another currency are shown in US dollars at an approximate rate and marked with ~. Back to the Elastic vs UiPath overview