Minneapolis-based phData has secured new funding from existing investor Gryphon Investors, with participation from Anthropic. The company announced the investment on October 28, 2026. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The funding will support phData's plans to add more than 300 data and AI professionals and expand its services helping enterprises deploy artificial intelligence across their operations.
Founded in 2014, phData specializes in helping businesses build the data infrastructure needed to support analytics and AI applications. The company employs more than 900 professionals across the United States, Latin America, and India, and maintains strategic partnerships with Snowflake, AWS, and dbt.
As a member of Anthropic's Claude Partner Network, phData works with enterprises to integrate Claude into business workflows, improve data accessibility, and develop AI agents capable of delivering reliable information and automating business processes.
“Our clients need AI that provides reliable answers and transforms how their business runs,” said Ryan Bosshart, CEO of phData. “We are putting our best people into these engagements and building the services our clients need to win with Claude at scale.”
Anthropic's participation in the funding highlights the growing importance of implementation partners as enterprises move beyond experimenting with AI toward deploying it in everyday operations. For phData, the investment represents an opportunity to expand its role in that market while growing a Minneapolis-headquartered technology company with a global workforce.
Enterprise AI Services Are Heating Up in Minnesota
The investment in phData reflects growing interest in companies that help enterprises move AI beyond experimentation and into everyday business operations. Minnesota is seeing this trend firsthand, with a growing number of local technology firms joining Anthropic's Claude Partner Network.
One example is Minneapolis-based Blank Metal, an AI engineering company founded in 2025 by a team of six technology veterans: Matt Johnson, Mark Hines, Eric Johnson, Elli Rader, Teresa Marchek, and Missy Bemm. Several members of the founding team previously worked together at GoKart Labs, which was acquired by West Monroe in 2019. Blank Metal helps enterprises develop and deploy production-ready AI applications, with a focus on moving projects from pilot to production in 90 days or less.
In June 2025, Blank Metal raised $3 million in seed funding from Rally Ventures, Traction Capital, and Pure Play Partners. Notably, Brock Noland, who is an early investor in Blank Metal, is also a co-founder of phData. Blank Metal has since established its own partnership with Anthropic and is listed as a Select Partner in the Claude Partner Network.
Another Minnesota company, Demand Chain, announced its designation as an official Anthropic Claude partner in June 2026. The longtime Salesforce consulting firm is expanding its focus on AI agents and business automation, particularly in financial services, healthcare, and manufacturing.
Together, these developments point to a growing enterprise AI services sector in Minnesota. While the companies differ in size and approach, each is positioning itself to help businesses implement AI technology. Anthropic's direct investment in phData represents another step in that trend, extending the relationship between AI model developers and the companies responsible for bringing their technology into enterprise environments.
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