IBM acquires Hakkoda to continue its AI consultancy investment push

IBM on Monday said it has acquired Hakkoda, a data and AI consultancy based in New York.

The acquisition would “further expand” IBM’s ability to bring consultants and AI to clients, particularly customers in industries like financial services, public sector, and healthcare and life sciences, said Mohamad Ali, SVP and head of IBM’s consulting business, in a statement.

“With Hakkoda’s data expertise, deep technology partnerships, and asset-centric delivery model, IBM will be even better-positioned to deliver value faster to clients as they transform with AI,” Ali said.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The deal comes as IBM continues to ramp up its investments in AI and automation technologies. In February, the company acquired DataStax, a platform for building AI apps, and it recently finalized its purchase of infrastructure and security automation firm HashiCorp.

The strategy has borne fruit for IBM. In Q4 2024, the company, which makes the bulk of its AI income from consulting, recorded its biggest revenue jump in five years — sending its stock soaring 10%. IBM said at the time that AI bookings and sales stood at over $5 billion inception-to-date.

Co-founded in 2021 by ex-Deloitte GM Erik Duffield, Hakkoda helps customers move data to the cloud — in particular, the Snowflake data cloud. The startup offers a range of tools to help firms migrate and transform data, as well as products to “modernize” data from older systems.

The startup had managed to raise a total of $5.6 million in venture capital, according to Crunchbase. Its backers include Tercera, Lead Edge Capital, and Casimir Holdings.

Duffield said Hakkoda’s hundreds of consultants across the U.S., Latin America, India, Europe, and the U.K. will join IBM’s consulting division as part of the deal.

“From the beginning, Hakkoda has committed to being ‘in the arena,’ not observing the greatest transformation in history but shaping it,” Duffield said in a statement. “IBM’s heritage of innovation, their commitment to discovery, and deep partnerships with clients on their most technical challenges [are] a perfect pairing to take Hakkoda’s industry-focused modern data consulting to the global marketplace.”