Publicly traded data and AI company EXLService Holdings, Inc. has signed a definitive agreement to acquire California-based artificial intelligence data company iMerit for $310 million, as the Nasdaq-listed firm bets on rising enterprise demand for AI deployment services. According to recent reports, the deal comprises an upfront payment of $170 million, with as much as $140 million in earnouts tied to milestones over two years. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026, subject to regulatory and antitrust approvals, with the acquisition designed to strengthen EXL's AI capabilities, expand its presence in high-growth sectors and deepen partnerships with foundation model developers.
EXL plans to bring iMerit's Ango data platform into its existing AI offerings, creating what the company calls an end-to-end system covering data preparation, model evaluation and enterprise-scale deployment. As reported by Business Standard, iMerit, founded in 2012 by Radha Basu, specializes in training and evaluating foundation models and computer vision systems, and counts Khosla Ventures and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation among its backers. The acquisition expands EXL's presence in high-growth AI sectors including high technology, mobility, autonomous systems and physical AI, with iMerit's expertise across text, image, video, voice and LiDAR data creating a strong foundation for AI solutions powering robotics, autonomous vehicles and intelligent real-world environments.
The acquisition follows EXL's 2024 acquisition of ITI Data and comes as McKinsey's The State of AI: How Organizations Are Rewiring to Capture Value report, released in March 2025, shows 78% of organizations use AI in at least one business function, up from 72% in 2024 and 55% in 2023. According to industry reports, enterprises increasingly move AI projects from experimentation to large-scale deployment, driving demand for high-quality data, model training and evaluation services. BPM companies globally have been pivoting from providing low-value, repeatable tasks to higher-value services such as workflow orchestration that offer better margins and revenue opportunities.
Rohit Kapoor, EXL's chairman and chief executive officer, stated that the acquisition of iMerit strengthens EXL's AI strategy and ability to help clients move from experimentation to production. As reported by Business Standard, Kapoor emphasized that success requires industry-specific data, rigorous evaluation and reinforcement learning to deliver reliable results in business-critical workflows. Basu, CEO and founder of iMerit, expressed excitement about building on their work with AI innovators and bringing those insights to companies seeking to unlock their proprietary data, noting that both companies share a belief that specialized, high-quality data is the foundation of AI success.
Founded in 1999, Nasdaq-listed EXL is a global data and AI company that provides services and solutions to corporations across industries, including insurance, healthcare, banking, retail, media, and utilities. According to Business Standard, the company has also integrated NVIDIA's Build Your Own Transaction Foundation Model developer example into its AI and analytics offerings. iMerit helps clients train large language and multimodal models to improve accuracy, precision and effectiveness, with clients including eBay, Microsoft and Autodesk in areas such as autonomous mobility, healthcare, robotics and agriculture. The acquisition reflects continued consolidation in the AI services market as companies expand capabilities in model training and enterprise AI deployment.
