IBM on Monday mentioned it has acquired Hakkoda, a knowledge and AI consultancy primarily based in New York.
The acquisition would “additional increase” IBM’s capacity to deliver consultants and AI to purchasers, notably prospects in industries like monetary providers, public sector, and healthcare and life sciences, mentioned Mohamad Ali, SVP and head of IBM’s consulting enterprise, in an announcement.
“With Hakkoda’s knowledge experience, deep know-how partnerships, and asset-centric supply mannequin, IBM can be even better-positioned to ship worth quicker to purchasers as they remodel with AI,” Ali mentioned.
Monetary phrases of the deal weren’t disclosed.
The deal comes as IBM continues to ramp up its investments in AI and automation applied sciences. In February, the corporate acquired DataStax, a platform for constructing AI apps, and it not too long ago finalized its buy of infrastructure and safety automation agency HashiCorp.
The technique has borne fruit for IBM. In This fall 2024, the corporate, which makes the majority of its AI revenue from consulting, recorded its largest income bounce in 5 years — sending its inventory hovering 10%. IBM mentioned on the time that AI bookings and gross sales stood at over $5 billion inception-to-date.
Co-founded in 2021 by ex-Deloitte GM Erik Duffield, Hakkoda helps prospects transfer knowledge to the cloud — specifically, the Snowflake knowledge cloud. The startup provides a variety of instruments to assist corporations migrate and remodel knowledge, in addition to merchandise to “modernize” knowledge from older methods.
The startup had managed to lift a complete of $5.6 million in enterprise capital, based on Crunchbase. Its backers embrace Tercera, Lead Edge Capital, and Casimir Holdings.
Duffield mentioned Hakkoda’s a whole bunch of consultants throughout the U.S., Latin America, India, Europe, and the U.Ok. will be a part of IBM’s consulting division as a part of the deal.
“From the start, Hakkoda has dedicated to being ‘within the enviornment,’ not observing the best transformation in historical past however shaping it,” Duffield mentioned in an announcement. “IBM’s heritage of innovation, their dedication to discovery, and deep partnerships with purchasers on their most technical challenges [are] an ideal pairing to take Hakkoda’s industry-focused fashionable knowledge consulting to the worldwide market.”
