Tredence has acquired US-based KMK Consulting as it looks to expand its healthcare and life sciences business amid growing adoption of AI across the pharmaceutical sector
The acquisition comes as Tredence bets heavily on healthcare and life sciences becoming its next major growth engine
The company expects the vertical to account for around 25% of its overall revenue by 2028
Bengaluru and San Jose-based data analytics company Tredence has acquired US-based KMK Consulting as it looks to expand its healthcare and life sciences business amid growing adoption of AI across the pharmaceutical sector.
The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
The acquisition comes as Tredence bets heavily on healthcare and life sciences becoming its next major growth engine. The company expects the vertical to account for around 25% of its overall revenue by 2028.
Speaking to Inc42, Tredence cofounding and chief revenue officer Shashank Dubey said the deal is driven by the rapid AI-led transformation underway in the pharmaceutical industry. “The industry spends roughly $250 Bn annually on R&D and a similar amount on commercialisation. AI and agentic systems are fundamentally reshaping how that spend is deployed,” Dubey said.
According to him, analytics and AI services for life sciences are expected to grow at a CAGR of 20%-25% over the coming years, creating a large opportunity for specialist technology providers.
Founded in 2000, KMK Consulting claims to work with eight of the world’s top 10 pharmaceutical companies and specialises in commercial analytics, patient analytics, market access, real-world evidence and market research.
Tredence sees the acquisition as a combination of complementary strengths. While KMK brings more than two decades of pharmaceutical and life sciences expertise, Tredence contributes AI engineering capabilities, data platforms and enterprise-scale deployment experience.
Dubey said the company’s strategy is to combine KMK’s domain expertise with Tredence’s AI stack, including decision intelligence platform Atom.AI, machine learning platform ML Works and agentic AI capabilities, to help pharmaceutical companies modernise business processes and decision-making.
The acquisition also gives Tredence deeper access to large pharmaceutical clients. KMK already serves eight of the top 10 global pharma companies, while Tredence works with several others in the sector.
The deal marks Tredence’s latest push to position itself as an AI transformation partner for large enterprises. Dubey argued that despite the growing popularity of AI coding tools and foundation models, enterprises are increasingly looking for partners that can build production-grade AI systems rather than experimental projects.
“There was a period when building software appeared easy. But large enterprises are realising that while AI can help create prototypes, scaling them into secure, governed and enterprise-ready applications is a very different challenge,” he said.
Founded in 2013 by Shub Bhowmick, Sumit Mehra, and Dubey, Tredence is a technology company that helps large businesses make better use of their data. It builds AI-powered software and tools that help companies understand customer behaviour, improve operations, increase sales, etc.
Tredence builds and deploys the technology that powers these decisions. For example, it can help a retailer predict what products customers are likely to buy, help a telecom company identify customers who may leave, or help a pharmaceutical company analyse patient and market data to improve how it develops and sells medicines.
The company primarily serves large global enterprises and has grown by combining industry expertise with AI and data engineering capabilities.
According to Dubey, Tredence is on track to grow about 45% this year after closing CY26 with annual revenue of roughly $250 Mn.
Looking ahead, the company is targeting $1 Bn in revenue by 2030 through a mix of organic growth and acquisitions. Dubey said Tredence could explore a fresh fundraise in calendar year 2027 and may also evaluate an IPO in the future, though listing is “an option, not a compulsion”.
He also indicated that healthcare and life sciences will not be the only sector where Tredence pursues acquisitions, with communications, media and insurance emerging as potential focus areas for future deals.
Source: Inc42 - Startups
