Profitable AI startup SymphonyAI eyes late 2025 IPO after strong growth of $500 million revenue run rate

Profitable AI startup SymphonyAI is gearing up for a public listing in the second half of next year, CEO Sanjay Dhawan said in a recent interview. The decision follows the company achieving a $500 million revenue run rate last year and hitting profitability, bolstered by a robust 25% revenue growth.

SymphonyAI is one of the few generative AI startups to reach profitability, a significant feat considering the billions funneled into the sector. Dhawan revealed that the company is currently in discussions with banks, although he withheld specifics on the progress of these preparations.

According to a report from Reuters, the move towards an IPO is seen as a strategic step to provide liquidity for executives and employees, and to secure additional capital for future mergers and acquisitions.

Founded in 2017 by Silicon Valley tech titan and philanthropist Dr. Romesh Wadhwani, SymphonyAI has rapidly scaled, leveraging AI to deliver critical insights for major companies like PepsiCo and Citadel. Wadhwani, who remains the largest shareholder after investing $600 million into the company, has a history of transforming startups into billion-dollar enterprises, as evidenced by his previous success with Symphony Technology Group.

The U.S. IPO market has shown signs of revival, with 86 IPOs raising $17.8 billion in the first half of this year, per EY data. Notably, KKR-backed OneStream, an enterprise finance platform, recently announced plans to raise $465.5 million in an upcoming IPO, providing a barometer for how the market might value software companies.

Dhawan, who formerly led the publicly traded automotive AI firm Cerence, noted that SymphonyAI is already adhering to public company compliance standards, with KPMG as auditors and an independent board in place. He emphasized that the timing of the IPO could shift based on market conditions and business performance.

“Going public is one milestone in our journey,” Dhawan said. “Once we identify a use case that we can disrupt with AI, we use M&A as a mechanism to add a volume of customers, which we can transform with AI.”

Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, SymphonyAI serves over 2,000 customers and employs more than 3,000 people across 30 countries. The company’s predictive AI solutions, now enhanced with generative AI features, continue to drive its competitive edge against rivals like C3.ai, which boasts a market cap of nearly $4 billion with approximately $310 million in annual revenue.

“We aim to focus on specific industries and develop turnkey AI-based applications for our enterprise customers,” Dhawan added.

As SymphonyAI charts its course toward an IPO, its success could set a precedent for other AI startups navigating the public markets.