July 16 (Reuters) - SymphonyAI, a U.S. artificial

intelligence company whose products help the likes of Pepsi

predict demand and financial companies spot fraud, is preparing

to go public in the second half of next year, its chief

executive said in an interview.

Sanjay Dhawan, CEO at SymphonyAI, said the firm is in talks

with banks but declined to disclose details or stages of

preparations.

The plan to list publicly came as SymphonyAI reached $500

million in revenue run rate last year and achieved

profitability, after growing revenue at a rate of about 25%,

according to Dhawan.

The firm, founded seven years ago by tech billionaire Romesh

Wadhwani, is hoping a public listing could provide liquidity for

executives and employees, as well as access to additional

capital for mergers and acquisitions.

The U.S. IPO market has started to show signs of recovery

this year, with 86 IPOs raising $17.8 billion in the first six

months, according to data from EY. KKR-backed enterprise finance

platform OneStream announced on Monday plans to raise $465.5

million in an IPO later this month, which could help others

gauge how the market values software companies.

Dhawan, who previously ran publicly traded automotive AI

firm Cerence ( CRNC ), said SymphonyAI is already meeting public

company compliance standards, with KPMG as auditors and an

independent board.

The timing of listing could still change, depending on

business and market conditions, he added.

"Going public is one milestone in a journey. 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," Dhawan said.

Wadhwani, who is chairman of the company after pouring $600

million into the SymphonyAI, remains the largest shareholder.

Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, SymphonyAI serves

more than 2,000 customers, including PepsiCo ( PEP ) and

Citadel. Predictive AI remains central to the company's

products, although it has added generative AI features.

With more than 3,000 employees across 30 countries,

SymphonyAI competes with C3.AI ( AI ), which has a market cap of

nearly $4 billion with about $310 million in annual revenue.

"We want to pick very specific industries and create these

turnkey solutions, which are AI based applications, for our

enterprise customers," Dhawan said.