EXL Completes Acquisition of iMerit Accelerating Enterprise AI Leadership

• iMerit founder and CEO Radha Ramaswami Basu joins EXL executive committee

ExlService Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXLS), a global data and AI company, announced it has completed the acquisition of iMerit, a recognized leader in AI model training, evaluation and reinforcement learning. Together, EXL’s enterprise data and AI leadership and iMerit’s capabilities and foundation model relationships will help clients build AI systems that are trusted, accountable and built to perform in the enterprise.
The completion of the acquisition establishes an end-to-end AI platform for enterprises, uniting EXL’s deep data, context and AI expertise with iMerit's technology, expert-led solutions and generative AI experience helping them accelerate the transition from pilot to production-scale AI.

As part of the transaction, iMerit founder and CEO Radha Ramaswami Basu joins EXL as Executive Vice President, Head of iMerit, and becomes a member of the company’s executive committee.

“This acquisition is a transformational pivot for EXL, deepening our vertically specialized AI capabilities and expanding our reach into high-growth AI technology sectors,” said Rohit Kapoor, chairman and chief executive officer of EXL. “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. This is especially critical in regulated industries where domain knowledge, context and compliance are non-negotiable. I am delighted to welcome Radha to EXL's executive committee; her vision, leadership, and deep expertise at the intersection of human intelligence and AI will help shape the next chapter of EXL's growth and innovation.”

“The next generation of enterprise AI will be defined not by the models organizations choose, but by how effectively they can deploy them in real-world business environments,” said Basu. “What excites me most about joining EXL is the opportunity to combine iMerit’s pioneering work in AI data, evaluation and human intelligence with EXL’s extraordinary depth in data, AI and enterprise transformation. Together, we can help clients bridge the gap between innovation and execution, turning AI potential into measurable business results. I am energized by what lies ahead and honored to join EXL’s executive committee as we help clients unlock the full value in enterprise AI integration.”

With iMerit now part of EXL, the combination extends the data and AI-led strategy EXL has been executing on for several years.

About EXL

EXL (NASDAQ: EXLS) is a global data and AI company that offers services and solutions to reinvent client business models, drive better outcomes and unlock growth with speed. EXL harnesses the power of data, AI, and deep industry knowledge to transform businesses, including the world's leading corporations in industries including insurance, healthcare, banking and capital markets, retail, communications and media, and energy and infrastructure, among others. EXL was founded in 1999 with the core values of innovation, collaboration, excellence, integrity and respect. We are headquartered in New York and have approximately 68,000 employees spanning six continents. For more information, visit www.exlservice.com.

About iMerit

iMerit is a leader in AI fine tuning, evaluation, and reinforcement learning. iMerit helps frontier AI labs and enterprises build more accurate, reliable, and domain-aware models. iMerit delivers high-quality data across industries such as high-tech, autonomous mobility, healthcare AI, and robotics. Scholars, its global network of specialists, includes physicians, scientists, engineers, linguists, and other subject matter experts who power high-quality data creation, reasoning evaluation, model alignment, and human feedback workflows for next-generation AI systems. Its proprietary Ango Hub platform allows customers and experts to collaborate on complex multimodal data to generate highly curated and validated training artifacts for high-stakes models. Learn more at imerit.ai.

EXL Acquires iMerit to Strengthen AI Training and Enterprise‑Scale Platforms

• 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

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.

About EXL

EXL (NASDAQ: EXLS) is a global data and AI company that offers services and solutions to reinvent client business models, drive better outcomes and unlock growth with speed. EXL harnesses the power of data, AI and deep industry knowledge to transform businesses, including the world’s leading corporations in industries including insurance, healthcare and life sciences, banking and capital markets, retail, communications and media and energy and infrastructure, among others. EXL was founded in 1999 with the core values of innovation, collaboration, excellence, integrity and respect. We are headquartered in New York and have over 67,000 employees spanning six continents. For more information, visit www.exlservice.com.

About iMerit

iMerit is a leader in AI fine tuning, evaluation, and reinforcement learning. iMerit helps frontier AI labs and enterprises build more accurate, reliable, and domain-aware models. iMerit delivers high-quality data across industries such as high-tech, autonomous mobility, healthcare AI, and robotics. Scholars, its global network of specialists, includes physicians, scientists, engineers, linguists, and other subject matter experts who power high-quality data creation, reasoning evaluation, model alignment, and human feedback workflows for next-generation AI systems. Its proprietary Ango Hub platform allows customers and experts to collaborate on complex multimodal data to generate highly curated and validated training artifacts for high-stakes models. iMerit is backed by Khosla Ventures, Omidyar Network, Dell Foundation and British International Investment (BII). Learn more at imerit.ai.

EXL Achieves Leader and Star Performer Placement in Everest Group PEAK Matrix® for L&P Insurance BPO

NEW YORK, Oct. 26, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- EXL [NASDAQ: EXLS], a leading operations management and analytics company, today announced it had achieved placement as a Leader and Star Performer in the "Everest Group PEAK Matrix® for L&P Insurance BPO Service Providers 2020." The report highlighted EXL's end-to-end servicing capabilities for life and pension insurers, data-driven transformation initiatives, and the strength of the proprietary LifePRO® policy administration system platform.

"EXL is an established Leader in the L&P insurance BPS market, differentiated by its domain-led approach, investments in insurance-specific talent, forward-looking capabilities such as actuarial transformation and data-driven underwriting, and enabling partnerships," said Skand Bhargava, Vice President, Everest Group. "With the capability to manage processes across the value chain, augmented by its proprietary digital suite and focus on the growing group life & benefits space, EXL is strongly positioned to drive continued success in the L&P insurance BPS market."

"We are pleased with our designation as a Leader and Star Performer," said Anand Logani, Senior Vice President and Head of Life and Pension Insurance, EXL. "L&P insurers are under tremendous pressure to develop resilient, agile, and profitable operating models. We believe this positioning shows how we are making the right investments and developing the right capabilities in our group and individual insurance solutions combining digital interventions, analytics, and our powerful domain experience to solve pressing industry challenges. We will continue to partner with our clients to position them for success, now and in the future."

Vikas Bhalla, Executive Vice President and Head of Insurance, EXL, said "Our advancements in finding innovative ways to apply AI, machine learning, and analytics for our insurance clients is a large part of our continued success. We will continue assisting our clients in accomplishing their objectives for improving digital customer journeys, gaining real-time insights that can power decisions, and increase revenue."

About EXL

EXL (NASDAQ: EXLS) is a leading operations management and analytics company that designs and enables agile, customer-centric operating models to help clients improve their revenue growth and profitability. Our delivery model provides market-leading business outcomes using EXL's proprietary Digital EXLerator Framework™, cutting-edge analytics, digital transformation and domain expertise. At EXL, we look deeper to help companies improve global operations, enhance data-driven insights, increase customer satisfaction, and manage risk and compliance. EXL serves the insurance, healthcare, banking and financial services, utilities, travel, transportation and logistics industries. Headquartered in New York, New York, EXL has more than 31,600 professionals in locations throughout the United States, Europe, Asia (primarily India and Philippines), South America, Australia and South Africa. For more information, visit www.exlservice.com .

CONTACT: Investor Relations

Steven N. Barlow

Vice President Investor Relations

212-624-5913

steven.barlow@exlservice.com

Media - US

Michael Sherrill

Vice President Marketing

646-419-0778

michael.sherrill@exlservice.com

Media - Europe, India and APAC

Shailendra Singh

Vice President Corporate Communications

+91-98104-76075

shailendra.singh@exlservice.com

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EXL Recognized as 2020 Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ Choice for Data and Analytics Service Providers

NEW YORK, Oct. 20, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- EXL (NASDAQ: EXLS), a leading Analytics and Operations Management company, today announced it has been named the 2020 Gartner Peer Insights Customers' Choice for Data and Analytics Service Providers.

The Customers' Choice distinction is given to select vendors who receive exemplary ratings from their verified customers. To achieve this recognition, vendors must have a minimum of 50 published reviews with an average overall rating equal or higher than the mean rating for that market. [1]

EXL is the only vendor to be recognized as Customers' Choice in the report: Gartner Peer Insights 'Voice of the Customer': Data and Analytics Service Providers . From our view, this distinction is a testament to EXL's commitment towards keeping its customers first, and ability to consistently add value to their business as a trusted service partner.

"We are proud to be the Gartner Peer Insights Customers' Choice for Data and Analytics Service Providers, a distinction we feel is even more meaningful because our customers put us there." said Vivek Jetley, Executive Vice President and Head of EXL Analytics. "To us, this recognition validates our ability to create significant value for our clients by leveraging our domain expertise and capabilities across the full analytics stack, from data management to advanced analytics, leveraging machine learning and AI."

Said Anita Mahon, Executive Vice President and Chief Growth & Strategy Officer, EXL, "Companies need to understand the metrics that matter most in the 'new reality" in order to generate insights about changing markets and find opportunities for growth. Navigating such an uncertain environment also requires true, trusted strategic partners. We're proud our clients have recognized us through this distinction."

The customers had this to say about EXL:

"EXL Has Delivered Exceptional Value for Our Organization" "The EXL Analytics team we work with provides critical support to our business via the use of cutting-edge statistical analysis techniques to unlock value in our data and support management decision making"  – Financial Analytics & Decision Support Leader "[The] company is built on value and trust. How work should be done with the clients is as important as what they do for them. They take client service seriously. Their clients' priorities drive their business focus to ensure their needs are met" – Data & Analytics Consultant "We have worked with EXL since late 2019 and our experience with them has been fantastic. The knowledge and expertise in assisting our teams transform and improve our data collection and consumption process has been extremely beneficial." – Consumer Analytics Leader

With a talented pool of 4500 data engineers, data scientists, business consultants, and SMEs across the globe, EXL has been helping its customers in planning, executing and continuously improving on their Data and Analytics strategies. To achieve this, EXL teams effectively leverage in-house expertise across the Analytics spectrum, from data management & cloud enablement, to Advanced Analytics & AI techniques. These capabilities combined with a deep knowledge of domain – a unique strength of EXL built over 20 years' experience across industries – deliver the consistent value for customers' reflected in their reviews.

To view customer reviews at Gartner Peer Insights, please click here .

[1] Source: Gartner Peer Insights 'Voice of the Customer': Data and Analytics Service Providers, Peer Contributors, 22 September 2020.

Disclaimer

Gartner Peer Insights Customers' Choice constitute the subjective opinions of individual end-user reviews, ratings, and data applied against a documented methodology; they neither represent the views of, nor constitute an endorsement by, Gartner or its affiliates.

About EXL

EXL (NASDAQ: EXLS) is a leading operations management and analytics company that helps our clients build and grow sustainable businesses. By orchestrating our domain expertise, data, analytics and digital technology, we look deeper to design and manage agile, customer-centric operating models to improve global operations, drive profitability, enhance customer satisfaction, increase data-driven insights, and manage risk and compliance. Headquartered in New York, EXL has more than 31,600 professionals in locations throughout the United States, the UK, Europe, India, the Philippines, Colombia, Australia and South Africa. EXL serves multiple industries including insurance, healthcare, banking and financial services, utilities, travel, transportation and logistics, media and retail, among others. For more information, visit www.exlservice.com .