IBM acquires Hakkoda to continue its ai consultancy investment push

IBM acquires Hakkoda to strengthen AI consultancy for key industries.

: IBM announced its acquisition of Hakkoda, expanding AI consulting services. This move targets industries like financial services, healthcare, and public sector by leveraging Hakkoda's data expertise and technologies. Despite undisclosed financials, this acquisition follows IBM’s recent purchases aimed at enhancing AI capabilities. Hakkoda, co-founded by Erik Duffield, has raised $5.6M supported by Tercera and Lead Edge Capital.

IBM has acquired Hakkoda, a New York-based data and AI consultancy, with the goal of enhancing its AI capabilities in consulting. Mohamad Ali, SVP and head of IBM's consulting business, expressed that this acquisition would significantly increase IBM's ability to provide AI technology and consulting services to key industries, including financial services, healthcare, and the public sector. He highlighted Hakkoda's strengths in data expertise, technology partnerships, and an asset-centric delivery model as essential factors that will enable IBM to deliver greater value to clients more rapidly as they undergo AI transformations. This strategy aligns with IBM's recent moves to build on AI and automation, exemplified by February's acquisition of DataStax, which offers a platform for building AI applications, and another purchase of HashiCorp for infrastructure and security automation.

In Q4 2024, IBM achieved a remarkable milestone by recording its most substantial revenue increase in five years, contributing to a 10% surge in its stock. This financial boost was driven by AI bookings and sales, which had surpassed $5 billion inception-to-date, with consulting as the primary income source. The continued investment in AI and other technology acquisitions seems to be strategically paying off for IBM.

Hakkoda, co-founded by Erik Duffield in 2021, specializes in guiding companies through the process of migrating data to the cloud, focusing particularly on Snowflake's data cloud. The startup offers various solutions for data migration and transformation and provisions for modernizing legacy data systems. Hakkoda has successfully raised $5.6 million in venture capital, with investments from noted firms such as Tercera, Lead Edge Capital, and Casimir Holdings, aiding its expansion and capabilities in the competitive data consultancy landscape.

As part of the acquisition, Hakkoda's teams of consultants spread across several countries, including the U.S., Latin America, India, Europe, and the U.K., are set to integrate into IBM's consulting division. Erik Duffield highlighted the shared commitment between Hakkoda and IBM to actively shape the technological transformations rather than merely observing them. He emphasized IBM's strong legacy of innovation and its valuable partnerships with clients on complex technical challenges as ideal complements to Hakkoda's industry-focused, modern data consulting services.

This acquisition underpins IBM's consistent strategy to enhance its AI and cloud offerings and underscores its ongoing investments aimed at fostering technological innovation and customer-driven transformation solutions on a global scale. By strengthening its position in emerging AI and data technology landscapes, IBM continues to position itself as a leader in providing cutting-edge consultancy services, tailored to suit diverse industry needs.

Sources: IBM, Crunchbase, Hakkoda

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