Graphcore has announced one of the last fundraising events of the year 2020. The British company has completed a $222 million Series E financing round, bringing the company’s valuation to $2.77 billion. Graphcore has developed an Intelligence Processing Unit (IPU), which is a new type of microprocessor specifically designed to support artificial intelligence workloads. The new investments will consolidate the company’s continued international development and accelerate research and development on silicon, systems and software for future IPUs.
The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board (Teachers’) led the roundtable with the participation of funds managed by Fidelity International and Schroders, as well as Graphcore’s historical investors, including Baillie Gifford and Draper Esprit. These investments bring the total funds raised by Graphcore to more than $710 million, with the company expecting to have more than $440 million of cash on hand at closing to support future growth.
CEO and co-founder of Graphcore, Nigel Toon said:
“Getting the backing of such a well-recognized institutional investor speaks volumes about how the markets now view Graphcore. We owe this trust to the expertise we have demonstrated in the development of our products and operations.
We have created a technology that far outperforms conventional processors, including graphics processing units (GPUs), as well as a powerful set of software tools designed to meet the needs of artificial intelligence (AI) developers; we have also launched an international sales offensive that positions our products in the marketplace. »
The new investors bring a wealth of experience in disruptive technologies and support for growing businesses, reaffirming the importance of the business opportunities that Graphcore is pursuing by leveraging AI computing power in data centers, as well as the maturity of the company’s product line.
“The market for specialized AI processors is expected to grow in the coming years as a result of major computing trends such as the cloud, 5G and the widespread adoption of AI, and we believe Graphcore is poised to become a leader in this area,” said Olivia Steedman, senior director of Teachers’ Innovation Platform (TIP).
“TIP seeks to invest in companies like Graphcore that are technology-driven and at the forefront of innovation in their sector. We are delighted to partner with Nigel and his strong management team to support the company’s continued growth and product development. »
The company’s IPU Mk2 products are immediately available worldwide.
The IPU-M2000 is a 1U data center blade, built around four Graphcore Colossus GC200 IPU processors and capable of delivering petaflop AI computing power. For many AI learning and inference tasks, IPU systems significantly outperform systems with the latest GPUs.
Graphcore’s IPU-POD64, dedicated to large-scale deployments, allows very large models to run on 64 IPU processors in parallel, or share the same IT resource across multiple users and tasks. For exafloping calculations, up to 64,000 IPUs can be linked in IPU-POD configurations.
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP provided legal expertise to Graphcore. Since its founding in 2016, Graphcore has raised more than $710 million in funds. Its investors are :
Ahren Innovation Capital, Amadeus Capital Partners, Atomico, Baillie Gifford, BMW iVentures, C4 Ventures, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, Chrysalis Investments (formerly Merian Chrysalis), Dell Technologies Capital, Draper Esprit, Fidelity International, Foundation Capital, M&G Investments, Mayfair Equity Partners, Microsoft, Pitango, Robert Bosch Venture Capital, Samsung Catalyst Fund, Schroders/Schroder Adveq, Sequoia Capital and Sofina.
Translated from Levée de fonds : Graphcore a bouclé un tour de table en série E de 222 millions de dollars
