- Positions EXL to accelerate AI innovation in the enterprise with iMerit's direct relationships with foundation model builders
- Deepens EXL's vertically specialized end-to-end AI capabilities with iMerit's model training, evaluation and reinforcement learning
- Expands EXL's total addressable market across high-growth AI tech sectors, and multiplies the impact of iMerit on a broader enterprise audience
NEW YORK, June 24, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ExlService Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXLS), a global data and AI company, today announced a definitive agreement to acquire iMerit, a recognized leader in AI model training, evaluation and reinforcement learning. iMerit is focused on helping its clients train large language and multimodal models to improve accuracy, precision, and effectiveness. The acquisition, valued at up to $310 million in upfront and future consideration, is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026, subject to customary closing conditions. The move strengthens EXL's ability to help enterprises achieve measurable outcomes from AI, builds partnerships with leading foundation model builders and expands EXL's reach into high-growth AI tech sectors.
"As organizations reimagine their businesses with AI, success requires industry-specific data, rigorous evaluation and reinforcement learning to deliver reliable results in business-critical workflows," said Rohit Kapoor, chairman and chief executive officer of EXL. "The acquisition of iMerit strengthens EXL's AI strategy and ability to help clients move from experimentation to production. By combining iMerit's capabilities with EXL's domain expertise and AI platforms, we are setting the standard for AI that is trusted, accountable and built to perform in the enterprise."
EXL will now be at the center of how next-gen AI is built, leveraging iMerit's client relationships with leading foundation model companies. EXL and its clients will benefit from early insight into how models are trained, fine-tuned and improved. This also positions EXL to help enterprises build fit-for-purpose small language models tailored to their data and workflows.
iMerit enhances EXL's platform and human intelligence capabilities through its Ango platform and Scholars network. Ango powers sophisticated data interactions with GenAI models, enabling chain-of-thought reasoning, red teaming and multimodal evaluations. Scholars expands EXL's domain expertise through iMerit's global network of specialists, including physicians, scientists, engineers, linguists and other subject matter experts who support human intelligence-driven feedback workflows for reinforcement learning.
EXL will integrate Ango with its agentic platforms - including EXLerate.ai, EXLdata.ai, and EXLdecision.ai - to combine expert human judgment, model evaluation and enterprise-scale execution. Together, these capabilities create an end-to-end AI platform that helps enterprises accelerate the transition from pilot to production-scale AI.
"We see EXL as an ideal leader in this defining moment for AI. We can build on our work with AI innovators and bring those insights to companies seeking to unlock their proprietary data," said Radha Ramaswami Basu, chief executive officer and founder of iMerit. "Both companies share a belief that specialized high-quality data is the foundation of AI success. We are excited to multiply our impact through EXL's industry expertise, complementary technology and trusted enterprise relationships."
These offerings strengthen EXL's vertically integrated AI stack and its ability to build and fine-tune domain-specific language models. This is particularly critical for regulated industries such as healthcare, insurance, banking and capital markets where EXL is already a highly trusted data and AI partner.
This acquisition also expands EXL into high-growth AI sectors, including high tech, mobility, autonomous systems and physical AI. iMerit's expertise across text, image, video, voice and LiDAR data creates a strong foundation for AI solutions powering robotics, autonomous vehicles and intelligent real-world environments.
Transaction Details
The $310 million acquisition involves an upfront consideration of $170 million, with an additional $140 million in incentives and earnouts over two years contingent on meeting specified milestones. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of this year, subject to customary closing conditions, including expiration or termination of the waiting period for applicable antitrust regulations.
Conference Call
EXL will host a conference call today, June 24, 2026, at 12:00 P.M. ET to provide additional information. The conference call will be available live via the internet by accessing the investor relations section of EXL's website at ir.exlservice.com. Please access the website at least fifteen minutes prior to the call to register,
