The merger of three specialized technology firms has created a new company focused on solving complex risk, compliance, and cybersecurity challenges with Agentic AI.

Hyperabad, India-based agentic AI firm Covasant—which has a North Texas office in Plano and a U.K. office in London—has merged with Austin-based konaAI, a leader in AI-driven fraud-risk and compliance technology, and California-based DCube Data Sciences Corp., a specialist in cybersecurity and eDiscovery, to form Covasant Technologies.

By integrating konaAI’s “best-in-industry” AI-led compliance expertise and DCube’s “coveted” cybersecurity and eDiscovery strengths, Covasant said it’s poised to expand its services portfolio and reinforce its commitment to delivering “robust, end-to-end enterprise governance solutions” to its clients across the U.S., the U.K., and the Asia-Pacific region.

Leadership of combined company

The new company is led by a team of visionary entrepreneurs and recognized industry leaders, bringing decades of experience in building high-growth technology companies and solving complex risk challenges for many of the world’s largest organizations, Covasant said.

Covasant’s Srikanth Chakkilam will be CEO and executive director of Covasant Technologies and will lead the combined company’s global strategy. He’ll be leveraging his experience for building high-growth, innovation-driven technology companies including Cigniti Technologies.

“The era of siloed AI experiments is over,” Chakkilam said in a statement. “Enterprises today demand unified, secure, and scalable platforms that deliver tangible business outcomes. This merger is focused on integrating deep domain expertise to solve high-stakes business problems together. We’re creating the definitive leader in agentic AI-led services for enterprise governance, risk, and compliance.”

Vincent Walden, a globally recognized authority on forensic data analytics and corporate compliance, joins Chakkilam in a leadership role at the new entity.

As the CEO of konaAI, he’ll “lead the charge” in helping organizations detect and prevent fraud and corruption, Covasant said. Before he joined konaAI, Walden was a managing director at Alvarez & Marsal and a partner at Ernst & Young, leading global forensic analytics teams.

“Joining hands with Covasant allows us to combine our AI-driven compliance and risk management expertise with Covasant’s larger, innovative solutions for enterprise AI and governance to deliver unmatched value for our clients,” Walden said. “In a world of increasing fraud and compliance complexity, risk professionals in Fortune 500 companies trust our platform because it provides precision-engineered, real-time insights that continuously learn. Together, we will set a new standard for proactive risk management, building the ‘dream platform’ for compliance and risk professionals,” added Walden.

Covasant Technologies’ leadership team also includes Paul Kelley, CEO of DCube Data Sciences.

Kelley is a 25-year veteran in digital forensics and legal technology who began his career at KPMG and Deloitte before taking on senior leadership roles at FTI Consulting and Stroz Friedberg. Kelley’s expertise in managing large-scale litigation, cybersecurity, and e-Discovery for high-stakes matters brings “critical, real-world experience” to the new entity, the company said.

“We’re excited about our merger with Covasant to deliver a stronger joint value proposition to our clients across diverse industry domains,” Kelley said in a statement. “Data is the lifeblood of AI and the biggest point of risk in litigation and cyberattacks. This strategic alignment enables us to leverage our combined capabilities in cybersecurity, e-Discovery, and data analytics to provide comprehensive solutions that enhance organizational resilience and compliance.”

Removing barriers to adopting Agentic AI

Covasant said the merger comes at a pivotal moment.

The company cited a recently published UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report which projects that the global AI market will soar from $189 billion in 2023 to $4.8 trillion by 2033—a 25-fold increase. Covasant said that agentic AI is emerging as “the next frontier,” noting that this presents a paradox: as enterprises rush to adopt AI, they face significant implementation hurdles and expose themselves to new, complex risk vectors.

By fusing Covasant’s AI engineering prowess with konaAI’s intelligent compliance and DCube’s cybersecurity strengths, the new entity said it aims to directly confront adoption barriers for agentic AI. Covasant Technologies’ unified platform enables clients to harness the power of agentic AI “strategically and securely, maximizing business value while minimizing risk,” the company added.

David Seeley contributed to this report.

Don’t miss what’s next. Subscribe to Dallas Innovates.

Track Dallas-Fort Worth’s business and innovation landscape with our curated news in your inbox Tuesday-Thursday.