FILE PHOTO: A trader works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., March 7, 2024. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
(Reuters) - SymphonyAI, a U.S. artificial intelligence company whose products help the likes of Pepsi predict demand and financial companies spot fraud, is preparing to go public in the second half of next year, its chief executive said in an interview.
Sanjay Dhawan, CEO at SymphonyAI, said the firm is in talks with banks but declined to disclose details or stages of preparations.
The plan to list publicly came as SymphonyAI reached $500 million in revenue run rate last year and achieved profitability, after growing revenue at a rate of about 25%, according to Dhawan.
The firm, founded seven years ago by tech billionaire Romesh Wadhwani, is hoping a public listing could provide liquidity for executives and employees, as well as access to additional capital for mergers and acquisitions.
The U.S. IPO market has started to show signs of recovery this year, with 86 IPOs raising $17.8 billion in the first six months, according to data from EY. KKR-backed enterprise finance platform OneStream announced on Monday plans to raise $465.5 million in an IPO later this month, which could help others gauge how the market values software companies.
Dhawan, who previously ran publicly traded automotive AI firm Cerence, said SymphonyAI is already meeting public company compliance standards, with KPMG as auditors and an independent board.
The timing of listing could still change, depending on business and market conditions, he added.
“Going public is one milestone in a journey. Once we identify a use case that we can disrupt with AI, we use M&A as a mechanism to add a volume of customers, which we can transform with AI,” Dhawan said.
Wadhwani, who is chairman of the company after pouring $600 million into the SymphonyAI, remains the largest shareholder.
Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, SymphonyAI serves more than 2,000 customers, including PepsiCo and Citadel. Predictive AI remains central to the company's products, although it has added generative AI features.
With more than 3,000 employees across 30 countries, SymphonyAI competes with C3.AI, which has a market cap of nearly $4 billion with about $310 million in annual revenue.
"We want to pick very specific industries and create these turnkey solutions, which are AI based applications, for our enterprise customers,” Dhawan said.
(Reporting by Krystal Hu in San Francisco, Editing by Louise Heavens)
