AI startup Cortex Logic’s holding company to acquire Tesla Water solution [Updated]

Cortex Group, the holding company of Cape Town based artificial intelligence (AI) startup Cortex Logic, announced earlier this week that it will acquire Tesla Water’s water quality monitoring solution.

In a statement earlier this week, Cortex Logic — which in February announced that it had secured an investment from an undisclosed investor (see this story) — said its holding company Cortex Group is in the process of signing a “definitive agreement” to acquire Tesla Water’s Smart Water Pro solution.

Cortex Logic, founded by Jacques Ludik (pictured above) in 2015, said the solution will be housed inside Water Mathematics, a stand-alone business that has been operating within Cortex Group since January this year.

Ludik would not disclose to Ventureburn how much Cortex Group would pay to acquire the water quality monitoring solution, but when pushed to comment in an email, he was able to reveal that it was “less than R50-million”.

“We, as the Cortex Group, are in process of finalising the deal with Tesla Water which is effectively just the final paper work which will be completed within the next few days,” he told Ventureburn.

In an earlier statement Cortex Logic said additional information about the acquisition will be released once the transaction is closed.

Cortex Logic said since 2017 Tesla Water has been providing convenient, safe potable water to the industrial, governmental, and domestic household sectors, through its wastewater treatment technology systems.

Cortex Logic said further details of the Tesla Water deal will be released once the transaction is closed

Tesla Water CEO Terry Booysen said Tesla Water is divesting from Smart Water Pro, to focus its efforts on the sale of water.

He said the acquisition will allow the company to further extend its ability to provide its customers with solutions that meet their demand for AI use cases.

Ludik said in the same statement that the acquisition complemented the group’s expertise in both AI and intelligent-edge hardware.

He said it will extend the group’s ability to meet the evolving needs of our customers globally – allowing the company to accelerate its own growth, in parallel.

Said Ludik: “The acquisition brings with it exceptional talent and offers us the ability to develop even more comprehensive solutions for our clients”.

Read more: SA AI startup Cortex Logic secures investment, eyes global expansion

Editor’s note (16 May 2019): This story was updated to include comments by email from Cortex Logic founder Jacques Ludik, including confirmation that the deal with Tesla Water was “less than R50-million”.

Featured image: Cortex Logic founder Jacques Ludik ( Jacques Ludik via Twitter)