Empower AI acquires data, digital transformation outfit
Gettyimages.com / Eugene Mymrin
By
Ross Wilkers
This is Empower AI's first acquisition completed with the backing of majority owner KKR.
Empower AI has acquired a fellow federal IT services provider in a move focused on further scaling out the buyer’s technology delivery function and strengthening artificial intelligence offerings.
Highlight Technologies is an employee-owned company that opened for business in 2008 to provide data and digital transformation support to agencies. Highlight’s flagship AI offering called AIDE, short for AI Data Integration & Orchestration Engine, is available to Defense Department agencies via the Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace for acquiring technology tools.
By purchasing Highlight, Empower AI is also looking to speed up its AI accelerator portfolio that is geared toward interoperability and quicker deployments. Financial terms of the transaction announced Tuesday were not disclosed.
Highlight has recorded $13.2 million in unclassified prime contract revenue over the trailing 12 months with 79% of that spend from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency, according to USASpending.gov data.
For Empower AI, this acquisition represents a first for the tech integrator on several fronts.
This is its first transaction since KKR acquired majority ownership of the company in the fall of 2022, as well as the first during Jeff Bohling’s tenure as CEO since he joined in early 2023.
The McLean Group advised Highlight on the transaction, while Rock Hall advised Empower AI.