EXL closes $310M iMerit deal to deepen enterprise AI stack

EXL (NASDAQ: EXLS) completed its acquisition of iMerit on Monday, combining the AI model training and evaluation provider with its enterprise data platforms in a deal valued at up to $310 million. The transaction, first announced June 24, creates an end-to-end AI platform designed to help clients move from pilot projects to production-scale AI deployment.

"By combining iMerit's capabilities with EXL's domain expertise and AI platforms, we are well positioned to help clients build, fine-tune and operationalize AI that performs reliably in production," said Rohit Kapoor, chairman and chief executive officer of EXL. "This is especially critical in regulated industries where domain knowledge, context and compliance are non-negotiable."

The acquisition lands as EXL's core business accelerates. Second-quarter revenue reached $594.8 million, up 15.6 percent year-on-year, with healthcare and life sciences growing 22 percent to $158 million — the company's fastest-expanding segment. Insurance, EXL's largest vertical, rose 14.9 percent to $197.8 million, while banking, capital markets and diversified industries grew 10.6 percent to $133.9 million. International growth markets added $105.1 million, up 14.6 percent.

iMerit founder and CEO Radha Ramaswami Basu joins EXL as executive vice president, head of iMerit, and a member of the executive committee. Her firm's network of specialists — physicians, scientists, engineers and linguists — powers data creation, reasoning evaluation and model alignment workflows for frontier AI labs. Its Ango Hub platform supports multimodal data collaboration for high-stakes model training.

iMerit adds $28M-$32M to 2026 revenue

EXL raised its full-year 2026 organic constant-currency revenue growth guidance to 13-14 percent, with total revenue projected at $2.390 billion to $2.415 billion — a 14-16 percent year-on-year increase that includes $28 million to $32 million from iMerit. Adjusted diluted earnings per share are guided at $2.25 to $2.29, up 16-18 percent.

The deal extends a data- and AI-led strategy EXL has pursued for several years. The company, founded in 1999 and headquartered in New York, employs approximately 68,000 people across six continents, serving clients in insurance, healthcare, banking, retail, communications and energy. The iMerit integration adds a layer of AI infrastructure capability that EXL previously lacked in-house, giving it direct access to foundation model training, evaluation and reinforcement learning workflows.

Regulated industries drive demand for production-grade AI

For enterprise clients in regulated sectors — healthcare payers, insurers, banks — the combined platform addresses a critical bottleneck: deploying AI models that meet compliance and domain-specific requirements. iMerit's foundation model relationships and expert-led data services give EXL a pipeline into the AI infrastructure layer that enterprise customers increasingly depend on.

The June 24 announcement initially moved EXL shares up 0.7 percent in the following session, according to StockTitan data. Recent insider activity showed net selling across three transactions, while short positioning was classified as low. The completion of the deal and subsequent integration disclosures will be watched by investors tracking EXL's AI strategy execution.

The acquisition positions EXL against competitors including Accenture and Cognizant, which have also been expanding AI capabilities through acquisitions. EXL's healthcare segment crossing $158 million at a 22 percent growth rate makes it one of the sector's fastest-growing healthcare outsourcing businesses. With iMerit now integrated, the company's ability to serve the AI infrastructure needs of regulated enterprises will be tested against a backdrop of accelerating enterprise AI adoption across healthcare, insurance and financial services.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.