Avicena Announces Series B Funding Round Led by Tiger Global with Participation from SK hynix
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Amid unprecedented demand for ultra-low power optical interconnects in AI datacenters and future disaggregated memory fabrics, Avicena is preparing for the next phase of growth
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SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Avicena, the leader in ultra-low power high-density microLED-based interconnects, announced today it has raised $65M in Series B Funding, bringing the total capital raised to $120M. The round was led by Tiger Global with participation from new and existing investors including Maverick Silicon, Prosperity7 Ventures, Venture Tech Alliance, SK hynix, Cerberus Capital Management, Hitachi Ventures and Lam Research.
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'This highly oversubscribed funding round is another testament that Avicena is in a leading position to disrupt the AI interconnect market, and reflects the magnitude of business opportunity before us,' says Bardia Pezeshki, Founder and CEO of Avicena. 'We will use the new funds to further scale our team and ramp our first product into production. Our LightBundle ™ microLED-based interconnects provide superior bandwidth density, energy efficiency, reliability and cost compared to all other optical interconnect technologies.'
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Artificial intelligence (AI) is driving an unprecedented surge in demand for compute and memory performance. Avicena's groundbreaking LightBundle ™ technology is based on arrays of GaN microLEDs that leverage the large display ecosystem and can be integrated directly onto any high-performance CMOS IC. The microLED transmit arrays are coupled into multi-fiber cables which connect to matching arrays of integrated silicon detectors, enabling class-leading optical interconnects which provide superior performance, reliability and cost compared to laser-based solutions.
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'Avicena's unique technology has transformative potential for improving the bandwidth and reducing the power consumption of AI computing systems,' says Rohit Iragavarapu, Partner at Tiger Global. 'We are excited to be investing behind them and their vision for a better AI interconnect.'
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'Energy-efficient optical interconnects are becoming a major topic in the architecture of next generation disaggregated memory fabrics,' says Rene Do, Senior Director, Venture Investment, SK hynix. 'Since high speed electrical interconnects have fundamental reach limitations, and laser-based optical links are too power hungry, microLED-based interconnects like Avicena's LightBundle represent a very promising solution for low power links in future memory fabrics. We are excited to join this round and potentially collaborate with the Avicena team on the development of next generation memory interconnects.'
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'AI is evolving faster than anyone could have predicted, pushing the limits of datacenter sustainability,' says Manish Muthal, Senior Managing Director at Maverick Silicon. 'The demand for AI supercomputers and datacenters that will power the next wave of AI models is accelerating, but this growth must be sustainable, and Avicena's energy efficient interconnects have the potential to deliver exactly what's needed. We look forward to continuing this transformative journey with the Avicena team.'
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'In the rapidly evolving landscape of generative AI, the demand for new compute and chip communication solutions is unprecedented,' says Abhishek Shukla, Managing Director at Prosperity7 Ventures. 'Avicena is well positioned to deliver superior next generation interconnects for AI supercomputers and datacenters which will help to unlock the next era of AI innovation at scale in a sustainable way. We are pleased to back the Avicena team on the next leg of their journey.'
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AvicenaTech, Corp. is a privately held company located in Sunnyvale, CA, developing LightBundle, a next generation optical interconnect architecture for AI/ML, HPC, sensors, 5G wireless and aerospace applications. This unique, flexible ultra-low energy technology is based on microLEDs, offering very high bandwidth density and low latency. Now, system designers can disaggregate functions like compute and memory and radically grow system throughput. Avicena's technology is a key building block in the evolution of networking and computing that will reduce the energy impact on our planet.
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