Today, IBM is announcing that it has acquired Manta Software Inc – a world-class data lineage platform — to complement its capabilities within watsonx.ai, watsonx.data and watsonx.governance and help businesses deliver products that are built on principles of trust and transparency.

As businesses integrate AI into their workflows and data becomes more complex, data quality and explainability are increasingly important to their strategies and systems. In fact, IBM’s 2023 CEO study found the number one barrier to generative AI adoption is concerns about the lineage or provenance of data. Businesses are seeking ways to better understand the data that is feeding their intelligent systems.

Manta — founded in 2016 and headquartered in Prague, CZ — helps give businesses visibility into their data environments by delivering a comprehensive map of data flows, sources, transformations and dependencies. Manta’s data lineage capabilities help increase transparency within watsonx so businesses can determine whether the right data was used for their AI models and systems, where it originated, how it has evolved and any discrepancies in data flows. By providing an audit trail, Manta can help businesses discover and anonymize sensitive data to lower risk of exposure and regulatory violations.

IBM and Manta have partnered in this space since June 2022 and already offer an integrated capability within IBM’s AI and data governance capabilities. Manta’s clients include leading brands like T-Mobile, BMO, J.B. Hunt and SCP Health.

The acquisition of Manta marks IBM’s eighth acquisition of 2023. Since Arvind Krishna became CEO in April 2020, IBM has acquired more than 30 companies, bolstering its hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.  Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

To learn more about Manta, visit https://manta.io.