AI & Machine Learning Acquisitions in 2021

Unbabel has acquired Lingo24 to expand its AI-powered language operations platform into marketing localization and multilingual customer support. The acquisition adds Lingo24’s enterprise customer relationships, localization expertise and tech-enabled translation capabilities, enabling Unbabel to deliver more consistent multilingual experiences across CRM and CMS channels.

Digital Alpha led a majority investment (reported at $200M) to acquire a controlling stake in DTiQ, the provider of AI-driven video intelligence, analytics and managed services for restaurants, convenience stores and specialty retail. The deal includes a strategic collaboration with Cisco Meraki to extend DTiQ's cloud, AI and automation capabilities and accelerate product and market expansion.

Booz Allen Hamilton has completed the spinout of its commercial AI platform Modzy into a new independent company, Modzy, Inc., with Booz Allen retaining a minority ownership stake. Modzy provides a ModelOps/MLOps software platform to help enterprises and federal customers deploy and monitor production-ready AI; financial terms were not disclosed.

Avantra acquired the intellectual property of FogLogic to accelerate product development and embed advanced AI/ML capabilities into its AIOps platform for SAP operations. The FogLogic technology will be integrated into Avantra Enterprise Edition to boost predictive analytics, automation and proactive resolution for enterprise SAP landscapes.

BigBear.ai completed a business combination with SPAC GigCapital4 and emerged as a publicly traded company (NYSE: BBAI) on December 8, 2021, in a transaction that values the combined company at approximately $1.378 billion pro forma enterprise value. AE Industrial Partners is a lead private equity partner supporting the transaction; BigBear.ai will use the public listing and capital base to accelerate product development, commercial expansion across government and commercial markets, and potential inorganic growth.

Hyperscience has acquired Berlin-based startup Boxplot, integrating Boxplot's graph data modeling technology into the Hyperscience platform to combine data processing with graph-based storage and relationships. The deal, signed on December 6, marks Hyperscience's first acquisition and is intended to accelerate product innovation and improve automation and decisioning for customers in insurance, finance, and healthcare.

Picsart has acquired DeepCraft, a Yerevan-based computer vision and AI research and development team, for an undisclosed sum. All DeepCraft employees will join Picsart and the startup's co-founders will take engineering roles as Picsart expands its video editing and core AI capabilities.

Advent International agreed to acquire a significant stake in Iodine Software in a strategic growth investment that values the company at over $1 billion. The capital will support Iodine's expansion of its AI-powered clinical documentation and revenue-cycle products (CognitiveML) and help scale its go-to-market reach across hospitals and health systems.

Qualcomm has acquired Clay AIR, an AI-powered hand-tracking and gesture-recognition technology company, to strengthen its XR (extended reality) technology stack. The acquisition adds Clay AIR's hardware-agnostic tracking technology and team of computer vision and machine-learning experts to Qualcomm's XR capabilities.

Source Capital, via its credit fund (Source Capital Credit Opportunities IV, LP) and its SBIC fund, has made an investment in Nexus Cognitive Solutions by providing debt financing to support Nexus’s acquisition of a cloud solutions and software development services provider. Nexus Cognitive Solutions, a service-disabled veteran-owned AI, data analytics and software-development firm headquartered in Addison, Texas, will use the financing to deepen its cloud, systems-integration and software development capabilities and accelerate growth in the public sector and enterprise markets.

MarkLogic Corporation, a Vector Capital portfolio company, has acquired Smartlogic, a metadata management and semantic AI platform provider. The acquisition brings Smartlogic's Semaphore technology and senior management team into MarkLogic to expand its metadata, semantic AI and information-enrichment capabilities; financial terms were not disclosed.

Meltwater B.V. has acquired Oxford University spin-out DeepReason.ai for $7.3 million in cash and Meltwater equity (including milestone/retention-based earn-outs). The acquisition brings DeepReason.ai's knowledge-graph reasoning technology and its team (five full-time and four part-time employees) into Meltwater to accelerate expansion of Meltwater's knowledge graph and AI-driven insights capabilities.

Bowmark Capital has completed an investment in Kubrick Group, a London-based provider of data, AI and cloud engineering consulting and talent services. The partnership will support Kubrick's international expansion, technology enablement and continued growth of its training and deployment programs for data and AI professionals.

Jellysmack has acquired UK-based AI video-editing startup Kamua, its first acquisition following SoftBank Vision Fund II investment. The deal brings Kamua’s computer vision and machine learning capabilities into Jellysmack’s in-house tech stack; Kamua will operate under the Jellysmack name and its staff (including core programmers in Romania) will be retained.

EverWash, a US car wash membership and subscription management platform, has acquired omniX Labs, a real-time vehicle analytics and machine learning SaaS provider. The deal will integrate omniX Labs' computer vision and ML capabilities into EverWash's platform to deliver vehicle-centric insights that improve customer personalization and increase revenue for car wash operator partners.

Foresight Group has made a c.£749,000 growth capital investment into The Modular Analytics Company Limited (TMAC), using equity finance from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF) as part of a c.£1.5 million funding round. TMAC, a Manchester-based AI and machine learning contact-centre software provider (Fonetik, Playbook and Coach), will use the funding to develop its SaaS platform, make senior hires and consolidate its East Midlands base.

Microsoft has acquired Two Hat, a Kelowna-based provider of AI-powered content moderation and digital-wellness solutions. The deal will integrate Two Hat’s moderation technology and team into Microsoft’s efforts to improve safety across Xbox, Minecraft and other Microsoft consumer and partner services.

Symphony RetailAI has acquired ReTech Labs, a SaaS provider of real-time shelf image capture and computer-vision recognition technology, to integrate ReTech's Rebotics into its Customer INsights and Decision Engine (CINDE). The acquisition creates an AI- and cloud-based closed-loop category planning and shelf intelligence solution for retailers and CPG manufacturers; ReTech will operate as an independent division led by founder Abhi Beniwal.

LivePerson, Inc. acquired VoiceBase and Tenfold to integrate real-time speech recognition, voice analytics, and CRM/telephony integrations into its Conversational AI platform. The acquisitions expand LivePerson’s voice capabilities and enable unified voice-and-messaging customer experiences for enterprise contact centers.

Aktana has acquired Ople.AI's machine learning automation technology to integrate into its Contextual Intelligence 360 platform, enabling non-data scientists at life sciences companies to build and deploy ML models more easily. The acquisition is intended to democratize AI across commercial life sciences teams and accelerate AI adoption by simplifying model creation, deployment and transparent explanations.

Ambarella, Inc. agreed to acquire Oculii Corporation, an Ohio-based developer of adaptive AI radar perception algorithms, to expand Ambarella's edge AI and sensor-fusion capabilities for automotive and other IoT endpoint applications. The acquisition adds Oculii's radar software (which can boost resolution of conventional radar chips) to Ambarella's CVflow SoC portfolio and is expected to close in Ambarella's Q4 FY2022.

Global investment firm Carlyle led a strategic growth investment of up to $430 million to acquire a majority stake in Saama Technologies. A syndicate of healthcare-focused investors — including Amgen Ventures, Intermountain Ventures, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, McKesson Ventures, Northpond Ventures, Pfizer Ventures and Population Health Partners — will co-invest to accelerate Saama's AI-driven Life Science Analytics Cloud and expand go-to-market and R&D capabilities.

Instacart acquired Caper AI, an AI-powered smart cart and automated checkout technology provider, to expand its retailer enablement platform and unify online and in-store shopping experiences. The acquisition brings Caper's hardware, computer-vision capabilities and team into Instacart to accelerate in-store solutions for grocery and convenience retailers.

Poshmark, Inc. has acquired Suede One, a startup that uses machine learning, computer vision and human review to virtually authenticate sneakers. The Suede One team will join Poshmark to expand and scale authentication capabilities across sneakers and other high-growth resale categories, enhancing trust and the user experience on Poshmark's marketplace.

Alteryx has acquired Sydney-based Hyper Anna, a cloud platform that delivers AI-driven automated insights, to integrate natural-language and automated insight capabilities into its analytics automation platform. The deal aims to extend Alteryx’s end-to-end analytic pipeline by embedding Hyper Anna’s AI insights and democratizing faster, contextual insights for enterprise users.

Gap Inc. has acquired Context-Based 4 Casting Ltd. (CB4), an AI/ML-powered retail analytics startup, and will integrate CB4's team and technology to enhance inventory, demand sensing, and customer experience across its brands. The acquisition brings CB4's predictive analytics capabilities in-house to accelerate Gap Inc.'s technology-driven merchandising and store operations.

Eagle Eye Networks has acquired Uncanny Vision, a surveillance AI and computer vision specialist, adding technology, engineering talent and a new regional office in Bangalore, India. The deal retains all 60 Uncanny Vision employees and integrates its deep-learning analytics into Eagle Eye's cloud video surveillance platform to accelerate AI-driven capabilities.

dMY Technology Group, Inc. III completed its previously announced business combination with IonQ, Inc., and the combined company began trading on the NYSE under the ticker IONQ on October 1, 2021. The transaction provided IonQ with approximately $636 million in gross proceeds to fund growth and accelerate commercialization of its trapped‑ion quantum computing systems and cloud services.

Qlik has acquired Big Squid, a provider of no-code automated machine learning, to embed AutoML-driven predictive analytics, key-driver analysis and what-if scenario planning into Qlik's augmented analytics and Qlik Cloud. The acquisition expands Qlik's SaaS roadmap and Active Intelligence vision by enabling non-data-scientists to deploy API-accessible predictive models directly within Qlik; terms were not disclosed.

Dubber Corporation Limited has acquired Brisbane-based AI meeting-notes company Notiv via the purchase of all issued share capital of holding company Pinch Labs, Inc. The transaction consideration was ~A$6.6 million (A$5.15m cash and the balance in Dubber shares), and key Notiv management including co-founders will remain with the business as Dubber integrates Notiv into its AI capabilities to accelerate product roadmap and go-to-market with Dubber's global service provider partners.

BetterUp acquired two technology companies—Motive, an emotion AI firm, and Impraise, a performance and people‑management software provider—to enhance its AI-driven coaching platform and expand its European presence. The acquisitions broaden BetterUp’s product capabilities in emotion and people analytics and add an Amsterdam outpost to support EMEA growth.

Panasonic Corporation completed the acquisition of Blue Yonder, purchasing the remaining 80% of shares to own the company outright. The transaction, announced Sept. 17, 2021, values Blue Yonder at approximately USD 8.5 billion and combines Panasonic's sensing and edge-device capabilities with Blue Yonder's AI/ML-powered supply chain SaaS platform to accelerate an "Autonomous Supply Chain."

Hartford-based Aquiline Drones Corporation announced the acquisition of ElluminAI Labs, LLC to integrate the target's deep-learning AI capabilities into AD's Spartacus framework and advance its drone, cloud and training solutions. The deal is presented as a strategic capability expansion to accelerate AD's R&D, autonomous operations, mission analytics and commercial drone services.

Movius, a provider of secure unified mobile communications, has acquired Intentico, an AI-driven cognitive customer experience and conversational AI provider. The acquisition adds Intentico's ML/NLP capabilities (chatbots, speechbots and analytics) to Movius' MultiLine platform to deliver real-time intelligence across voice, text and messaging channels.

InMoment has completed the acquisition of Lexalytics to integrate Lexalytics' natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) text-analytics capabilities into InMoment's XI customer experience (CXM) platform. Lexalytics' team, including founder Jeff Catlin, will remain in place as InMoment expands native text analytics across its platform to support voice-of-customer, voice-of-employee, social listening and other use cases.

FLYR Labs has acquired Faredirect and xCheck to expand its AI-powered Revenue Operating System with ancillary revenue optimization and airfare marketing technology. The acquisitions integrate ancillary revenue management and marketing tools into FLYR's existing forecasting and pricing platform to help airlines maximize total revenue across products.

Zebra Technologies has acquired antuit.ai, an AI-powered SaaS provider of demand forecasting and merchandising solutions for the retail and CPG industries. The acquisition (previously owned by a consortium led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management) expands Zebra's retail software portfolio by adding advanced AI forecasting capabilities to better connect planning and execution across customers' supply chains and store operations.

WPP has acquired Satalia, a UK-based enterprise AI company that builds machine learning and optimisation solutions and products such as Satalia Workforce and Satalia Delivery. The acquisition will join Satalia with Wunderman Thompson Commerce to strengthen WPP's ecommerce and technology capabilities and position Satalia as a hub of AI expertise across WPP.

Conga, a leader in commercial and revenue operations software, acquired Contract Wrangler to integrate the startup's AI/ML-powered contract ingestion and analytics into Conga's contract lifecycle management products. The acquisition (announced August 17, 2021) will be marketed as Conga Contract Intelligence and is intended to accelerate Conga's capabilities in extracting actionable contract insights to manage risk and optimize revenue.

SAP SE has acquired the intellectual property of SwoopTalent in an asset acquisition to embed SwoopTalent's talent data intelligence and machine learning technology into SAP SuccessFactors. Several SwoopTalent engineering employees will join SAP; financial terms were not disclosed.

Jiddu Inc (parent of AgShift) has acquired Nirveda Cognition, an enterprise AI document-intelligence platform, in an all-stock transaction announced by investor CerraCap Ventures. The deal brings Nirveda’s AI/document-intelligence capabilities into Jiddu’s ecosystem to expand AgShift’s product capabilities and accelerate AI-driven solutions for food-quality inspection and other enterprise document‑intensive processes.

Litera has agreed to acquire Kira Systems, a Toronto-based leader in machine learning contract analysis, to strengthen its Transaction Management platform and expand due diligence workflows. As part of the deal, Kira majority investor Insight Partners will become a minority investor in Litera while Hg remains Litera's majority investor; Kira's AI research team will spin out as a new company, Zuva.

Hootsuite acquired Montreal-based conversational AI platform Heyday for approximately CA$60 million to add enterprise-grade customer messaging and AI automation to its social commerce and customer care offerings. The acquisition integrates Heyday's conversational AI and e-commerce integrations into Hootsuite's social media management platform to enable brands to deliver personalized 1:1 messaging experiences at scale.

Shutterstock, Inc. launched a new AI-focused subsidiary, Shutterstock.AI, and acquired three AI-driven creative/marketing platforms — Pattern89, Datasine and Shotzr — for aggregate cash consideration of approximately $35 million. The acquisitions are intended to accelerate Shutterstock's predictive creative, computer vision and content-insights capabilities and commercialize data assets from its large content library.

DataRobot announced the acquisition of MLOps platform Algorithmia on July 27, 2021, alongside a $300M Series G funding round. The acquisition is intended to deepen DataRobot's MLOps and model-serving capabilities so customers can deploy, manage, and scale ML models (including GPU workloads) in production more effectively.

Falfurrias Capital Partners has made a majority investment in alva, the London-based stakeholder intelligence platform, formalizing a partnership between alva, Ballast Research and Hamilton Place Strategies to deliver an integrated business intelligence offering. The deal will combine alva's NLP-driven stakeholder and ESG intelligence with Ballast and HPS's advisory and research capabilities to expand client-facing capabilities across financial services, healthcare, consumer and professional services markets.

Veritone, Inc. entered into a definitive agreement to acquire PandoLogic, an AI-driven recruitment marketing and conversational hiring platform, for total consideration of $150 million payable in cash and Veritone stock plus performance-based earnouts. The acquisition, expected to close in late Q3 2021, expands Veritone's AI addressable market into talent acquisition and adds a recurring SaaS revenue stream—PandoLogic generated over $50 million in pro forma 2021 GAAP revenues and strong EBITDA margins.

VelocityEHS, the Chicago-based provider of cloud EHS and sustainability software, has acquired Ann Arbor-based Kinetica Labs, a developer of sensorless motion-capture and computer vision technology for workplace ergonomics. The acquisition brings Kinetica's AI and machine-learning capabilities into VelocityEHS's Industrial Ergonomics solution to accelerate product innovation and automated MSD risk assessments.

ZoomInfo agreed to acquire Chorus.ai for approximately $575 million in an all-cash transaction, adding conversation intelligence and AI-driven call analysis to its go-to-market platform. The acquisition expands ZoomInfo's capabilities across the sales funnel by integrating Chorus's ML/NLP conversation insights into ZoomInfo's data, engagement, and workflow products.

TELUS International has acquired Bangalore-based Playment, a provider of data annotation services and a SaaS platform for computer vision training data. The acquisition strengthens TELUS International's computer vision and AI data capabilities to better serve technology and large enterprise clients across multiple verticals.