New Delhi, June 26 -- The $310 million, or around Rs 2,900 crore, acquisition of artificial intelligence (AI) data solutions company iMerit by Nasdaq-listed EXL marks the culmination of more than a decade of patient capital from impact investors and development finance institutions that backed the company through multiple stages of growth.
Founded in 2012 by Radha Basu and Anindya Chattopadhyay, iMerit has evolved from an impact-led digital services startup into an enterprise AI data solutions company. Along the way, it attracted investors including Omidyar Network, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, Khosla Impact and British International Investment (formerly CDC Group).
When Omidyar Network first invested in iMerit in 2012, the company was valued at just around Rs 13.3 crore. Omidyar invested Rs 4.13 crore for a 30.95% stake, becoming one of the startup's earliest institutional backers.
Three years later, in October 2015, iMerit raised Rs 22.4 crore from Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, Omidyar Network and Khosla Impact through a preferential allotment. The round valued the company at approximately $9.5 million (Rs 62.9 crore), nearly four times its 2012 valuation.
By 2020, iMerit had begun positioning itself as a specialist in AI training data and machine learning services. It raised Rs 143 crore in a Series B funding round led by CDC Group, now British International Investment (BII), with existing investors Omidyar Network, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and Khosla Impact also participating.
BII deepened its commitment in 2021 with another Rs 95.5 crore investment. By then, the company had established itself as a provider of AI data engineering, annotation and model validation services for enterprises across healthcare, autonomous mobility, geospatial intelligence and other sectors.
Over the following years, the rapid adoption of generative AI further strengthened demand for human-in-the-loop AI services. iMerit expanded its operations to more than 5,500 employees across India, Bhutan and the US while serving Fortune 500 companies and leading AI enterprises.
The acquisition by EXL values iMerit at $310 million (around Rs 2,925 crore), representing a sharp increase from its early funding years. Based on disclosed funding rounds, the company's valuation grew from about $2.4 million in 2012 to $9.5 million in 2015, before eventually reaching $310 million through the strategic acquisition.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.