Major AI Merger: Bulgarian Ontotext merges with Semantic Web Company to form Graphwise
They see themselves as a hidden AI champion in Austria and are now merging with another player on the market in order to become bigger han the well-known AI startup Aleph Alpha from Germany: The Semantic Web Company from Vienna around CEO Andreas Blumauer today announced the merger with Ontotext from Sofia, Bulgaria. Together they are merging to form the new company Graphwise and want to become the world’s leading provider of graph-based AI – with 200 employees.
The Viennese and Bulgarian companies are combining their products GraphDB from Ontotext and the metadata, knowledge modeling, and text mining software from the Semantic Web Company. Graphs function like a navigation system for LLMs, which often hallucinate or provide incorrect information. “They guide AI models with precision and context to produce trustworthy, understandable results. Just as a GPS system provides precise routes and prevents wrong turns, knowledge graph AI models steer in the right direction by structuring and linking data in a meaningful way,” says Graphwise.
The Semantic Web Company was founded in 2005 and has been working with machine learning ever since. The company has had turbulent times, as concrete measures had to be taken with regard to savings and restructuring at the turn of the year 2023/2024. Previously, the company made higher investments due to the emergence of generative AI and large language models and experienced a strong loss of customers in 2023, while high inflation and increased personnel costs struck. Now the company is moving into the next chapter with the merger with Ontotext.
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In an interview, Andreas Blumauer, now SVP Growth at Graphwise, talks about the merger:
What does this merger look like at the company level? Which company buys the other, or who gets which shares?
Andreas Blumauer: Ontotext is a bit bigger, but it is definitely a merger on equal terms. It is not a takeover, but a classic merger, supported by the Semantic Web Company and the investor consortium that was originally involved in Ontotext. Specific details about the shares are not public.
Who will be the CEO in the future or who will make up the C-level?
The C-level is made up of the management teams of the original companies, enriched by experienced software managers to further develop the American market. For this, we have recruited, among others, a very experienced SVP Sales. The leadership role as President will be taken over by the former CEO of Ontotext, Atanas Kiryakov, and I will take on the role as SVP Growth.
Where will the company headquarters be located in the future?
There is no company headquarters, but our main locations are in Vienna, New York and Sofia – and we also have offices in Basel, London and APAC.
How many employees are there combined?
In total, we will have around 200 employees, about a third of whom will be based in the DACH region.
So what is the core product of the merged company, how could one describe it in simple terms?
The Graphwise platform helps companies make AI results more reliable and understandable. This involves using so-called knowledge graphs, such as those used by Google in its search or Microsoft in its co-pilot. Especially in the B2B environment, it is important that the specific knowledge is correctly understood by the AI - this is where the Graphwise product helps.
What exactly is graph AI? Is it an alternative or an add-on to LLMs?
It is an add-on to LLMs. LLMs represent language and knowledge graphs represent connections and logic in a specific subject area. The combination of both produces significantly better results – this is shown by the trend towards comprehensible AI. The technical name is Graph RAG, which is being used more and more often in companies.
What problem does the new company solve for its customers?
The hype around AI in recent years has now been followed by disillusionment among CTOs and CDOs. No one lacks AI models, but they lack access to AI-ready data to feed them. Thanks to the unique combination of our graph technologies and our semantic AI expertise, companies can now process their data with significantly greater accuracy, reliability and context. Graphs are the final important piece of the AI puzzle, and we are excited to offer organizations around the world a unique and proven solution that enables our customers to achieve the results they want and leverage their AI investments.
