McKinsey acquires AI and machine-learning tech company Iguazio

McKinsey acquires Iguazio, a leader in AI and machine-learning technology. With the addition of Iguazio’s technology and a team of more than 70 data and AI experts, McKinsey will be able to dramatically accelerate and scale AI deployments, driving further impact for clients.

According to McKinsey research, more than $490 billion was invested in AI by organizations around the globe from 2012 to 2021.

But most business leaders are still struggling to translate these investments into concrete returns, with only 10% of AI projects actually emerging from the lab and succeeding in real business environments.

As a leader in the technology space, QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey has been working with clients for more than a decade to embed AI into real-time decision making to help solve the world’s most challenging problems. But one key question remained unanswered: how do organizations successfully deploy and scale AI to unlock real business value?

The answer to this is multi-dimensional. It requires getting many elements right simultaneously – data, algorithms, IT architecture, capabilities, change management, and domain expertise

Alexander Sukharevsky, McKinsey senior partner and global co-leader QuantumBlack

“We have been working on a holistic offering that allows us to master all these dimensions in a very intuitive way, and we have road-tested it with various clients across the globe. Our teams have been working on a solution that automates and accelerates AI development, deployment, putting AI applications into production at scale and in real-time in any environment.”

This is McKinsey’s first acquisition in Israel. Our newly extended team will serve as the foundation for a new QuantumBlack location, which McKinsey expects to expand and grow in the coming years.

Iguazio’s four co-founders – CEO Asaf Somekh, along with CTO Yaron Haviv, COO Yaron Segev, and VP Architecture Orit Nissan-Messing – have been working together since 2001, both in their own startups and across multiple organizations, and have developed some of the core technologies of enterprise analytics and AI.

Iguazio founders, from left: Yaron Haviv, CTO; Yaron Segev, COO; Orit Nissan-Messing, VP architecture; Asaf Somekh, CEO (photo by Yanai Yechiel).
Iguazio founders, from left: Yaron Haviv, CTO; Yaron Segev, COO; Orit Nissan-Messing, VP architecture; Asaf Somekh, CEO (photo by Yanai Yechiel)

Working with Iguazio, QuantumBlack will be able to immediately provide clients with industry-specific AI solutions that are five times more productive, eight times faster from proof-of-concept to production, and twice as reliable.

We analyzed more than a 1000 AI companies worldwide and identified Iguazio as the best fit to significantly accelerate our AI offering – from the initial concept to production, in a simplified, scalable and automated manner

Ben Ellencweig, McKinsey senior partner and QuantumBlack global leader of alliances and acquisitions

Iguazio has a state-of-the-art technology that has generated significant market traction with some of our marquee clients and earned them top-industry recognition. Strengthening McKinsey`s offering with Iguazio will allow to present to the market the first holistic solution globally that helps any organization truly harness the full potential of AI.

Over time, the Iguazio and QuantumBlack teams will be fully integrated, working from a single product roadmap, to bring together the best technology assets of each firm into a single product.

A new offering will allow us to integrate AI in real-time decision making and capture full value to help clients drive sustainable and inclusive growth.

by Peter Sonner