A Scottish AI startup has been acquired by a new division of OpenAI as part of the tech giant’s drive to support business adoption of the technology.
Edinburgh’s Tomoro, whose clients include Tesco, Virgin Atlantic, Fidelity International and Supercell, will come under the wing of OpenAI Deployment Company, as it bids to turbocharge organisations’ AI capabilities.
The acquisition will bring approximately 150 experienced ‘forward deployed engineers’ and ‘deployment specialists’ to the OpenAI Deployment Company from day one, the tech giant said.
In a company statement, Tomoro said: “Two and a half years ago, Tomoro was created to build a more human-aligned future of work: where AI is not just available to people, but shaped around how they think and create, ultimately redefining how work gets done. That belief has not changed. But we’ve got a lot more ambitious.
“Our shared goal will be to help organisations move from access to OpenAI products to real deployments, production-ready AI and reimagined work. This is the work Tomoro was built for. We provide inspiration, guidance and the specialist engineering and deployment skills to create a future where work is more valuable, more productive, more joyful for everyone.”
The OpenAI Deployment Company is a partnership between OpenAI and 19 leading global investment firms, consultancies, and system integrators. The partnership is led by TPG, with Advent, Bain Capital, and Brookfield as co-lead founding partners, and B Capital, BBVA, Emergence Capital, Goanna, Goldman Sachs, SoftBank Corp., Warburg Pincus, and WCAS as founding partners.
Investors also include leading consulting and systems integration firms, including Bain & Company, Capgemini, and McKinsey & Company. The Deployment Company will also work closely with and alongside OpenAI’s Frontier Alliance partners and the broader industry to drive AI adoption and change management globally.
Former business minister Richard Lochhead met with Ed Broussard, co-founder and managing director, last year as the company opened a new Edinburgh office. The firm pledged to double the firm’s headcount over the next three years as it scales its generative AI and autonomous-agent solutions with a global client base.