Columbus AI software startup branching out with new parent company

Boston-based company DataRobot has recently purchased Columbus’ Nexosis, a machine-learning software company that helps developers by automating problem-solving. Officials from the new parent company said they now hope to expand upon Nexosis’ existing offices to establish a larger market in the Midwest. Nexosis CEO Ryan Sevey will stay on as the general manager for DataRobot in Columbus and said he looks forward to what the future brings.

“You’ll see a number of positions open up in Columbus,” he told Columbus Business First. “Columbus was part of the reason for the acquisition; they’re trying to grow a sizable presence here,” Sevey said. “This is a story of a very high-tech company setting up shop in Columbus. There’s not a lot of AI/machine learning companies in Columbus.”

Nexosis was first founded in 2015 on the principle that AI could help corporate operators better keep stock of inventory and predict rises or drops. DataRobot is a fellow AI-based startup that looks to help Nexosis as it continues to transform from its initial model to one more based on software developments and staffing call center employees in its location in Ohio’s capital.

“We jumped at the opportunity to have them join us and keep their technology – and their talent – out of the market before the many aspirational DataRobot competitors could try to acquire them,” said DataRobot CEO Jeremy Achin in a statement to Columbus Business First. “Other companies in the data ecosystem looking to try to copy DataRobot should seriously think about firing their corporate development people for missing an opportunity like this.”

DataRobot has raised more than $100 million in funding and this acquisition of fellow Techstar business accelerator participant Nexosis marks the second such acquisition of an important new startup. “We shared a lot of the same vision, and it was very complimentary,” Sevey told Columbus Business First. “Our paths were becoming very well aligned. Both parties saw the tremendous upside potential here.”