CDC leads $20m round for Indian data annotation firm

Founded in 2012, iMerit is a data enrichment company that annotates data used by AI, machine learning and neuro-linguistic processing algorithms. It employs more than 3,000 people in the US, Bhutan and India to produce high-quality data sets that contribute to advancements in autonomous driving, cancer cell research and trading strategies.

The company claims to work for 100 multinational clients. According to Deloitte, revenue has grown nearly eight-fold over the last three years. Previous investors include Omidyar Network, Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, and Khosla Impact.

“Our investment in iMerit underlines our commitment to back companies that are creating skilled jobs, particularly for women, in countries where they are most needed. Advances in AI technology are normally seen as a threat to jobs. iMerit has demonstrated that the opposite is true,” said Nick O’Donohoe, CEO of CDC Group.   

iMerit is one of several firms offering data annotation services with a dual mission of enhancing gender inclusion. Alongside iMerit, Samasource, CloudFactory, and Meaningful also offer human-in-the-loop data processing services.

In India, CDC has also invested in Dr Agarwal's Eye Hospital, lending start-up Indifil Technologies and courier Ecom Express in recent months.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Save this article  
• Send to  

• Topics
• South Asia
• Expansion
• Technology
• India
• CDC Group