Bengaluru firm Algonomy acquires Linear Squared

Bengaluru:

Algonomy

, the Bengaluru-based provider of AI and decision-making software for retail and consumer verticals, is acquiring Colombo-based Linear Squared. The deal value was not disclosed.

Linear Squared

has a cloud and AI-based demand planning and forecasting platform, used mainly for the consumer packaged goods and grocery retail industries. Atul

Jalan

, founder & CEO of Algonomy, said Linear Squared’s technology complements Algonomy’s retail merchandising and supply chain solutions portfolio. But the acquisition, he said, was equally to build an engineering and R&D hub for Algonomy in Colombo. “We are currently only in Bengaluru, San Francisco and Seattle. Accessing talent in these locations is becoming an issue. Colombo has quality talent and the cost is attractive,” he said.Linear Squared will bring about 40 engineers to Algonomy in Colombo. Jalan said he plans to ramp that up to 100-150 soon. “Colombo is like what India was 15-20 years ago. I see a lot of hunger (to accomplish things) among employees,” he said.Sankha Muthu Poruthotage, CEO & co-founder of Linear Squared, said the company is excited at the prospect of joining Algonomy “which will help take our innovations to a much broader customer base at a faster pace than on our own.” Jalan said Linear Squared’s angel investors included former Google India MD Rajan Anandan, and

Mindtree

co-founder Krishnakumar Natarajan. Algonomy was formed last year following the merger of Jalan’s Manthan Systems with US-based RichRelevance. That merger combined Manthan’s cloud retail analytics expertise with RichRelevance’s personalisation software to create a single platform for real-time AI-based decisioning.