Apprentice.io And Tulip Acquire AI Platforms To Bolster Data Collection And Contextualization

From the end of 2025 through the start of 2026, acquisitions by MES vendors have been coming thick and fast. These have largely been motivated by the drive to enhance next-generation technology capabilities such as AI and digital twins – and, interestingly, have not just come from expected large suppliers, but also from smaller, more agile vendors. Apprentice.io and Tulip have both acquired AI-based platforms, Ganymede (in January 2026) and Akooda (in November 2025), to strengthen delivery of AI capabilities to manufacturers.

Ganymede is an AI-powered, cloud-based platform that captures, standardizes and automates lab and process data collection, facilitating the connection of instrument-level data from lab equipment to manufacturing processes further down the delivery chain. The close integration of Ganymede’s platform with Apprentice.io’s MES offering provides customers with a robust digital backbone that runs from discovery to scaled production.

Akooda, similarly, is an AI-powered platform that enables the easy collection and contextualization of enterprise data. Its integration with Tulip’s Frontline Operations Platform empowers customers to easily collect and connect data from across all Tulip applications end-to-end (E2E), with operators accessing contextualized data to support real-time decision making. It also strengthens the data foundations for all further AI application development and deployment, either created by Tulip or its customers.

The core element that links both acquisitions and, arguably, the most valuable aspect of them, is the ability of these AI-based platforms to deliver effective data collection and comprehensive data contextualization for robust insights.

AI functionality has consistently been a strong focus from MES/MOM vendors in their narrative around capability development, which makes sense for the field. While customers want to see exciting new capabilities, the outcomes and value AI delivers to their workforces – primarily aimed at reducing costs and improving throughput – is most important.

MES/MOM vendors no longer need to carry the torch of functionality-focused narratives; they can instead focus on the real business of getting these data foundations built on factory floors. Apprentice.io and Tulip’s acquisitions will significantly help these vendors deliver on that goal.