Graphcore – maker of the Intelligence Processing Unit which is a new type of microprocessor specifically designed to support artificial intelligence workloads – announced that it has raised $222 million in a Series E funding round that values the company at $2.77 billion post-money.
The company will utilise the current financing to support the company’s continued global expansion and to further accelerate future IPU silicon, systems and software development.
Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board (Ontario Teachers’) led the round with participation from funds managed by Fidelity International and Schroders, along with existing Graphcore investors including Baillie Gifford and Draper Esprit.
Till now, the startup raised about $710 million, with the company expecting to have over $440 million of cash on hand post-closing to support future growth, the statement said.
Commenting on the development, Nigel Toon, Graphcore CEO and co-founder, said: “Having the backing of such respected institutional investors says something very powerful about how the markets now view Graphcore. The confidence that they have in us comes from the competence we have demonstrated building our products and our business. We have created a technology that dramatically outperforms legacy processors such as GPUs, a powerful set of software tools that are tailored to the needs of AI developers, and a global sales operation that is bringing our products to market.”
The new investors bring to the table deep experience in disruptive technology and support for scale-up businesses and underscore the size of the market opportunity that Graphcore is addressing in datacentre AI compute, as well as the maturity of the company’s product offerings.
“The market for purpose-built AI processors is expected to be significant in the coming years because of computing megatrends like cloud technology and 5G and increased AI adoption, and we believe Graphcore is poised to be a leader in this space,” said Olivia Steedman, Senior Managing Director, Teachers’ Innovation Platform (TIP) at Ontario Teachers’. “TIP focuses on investing in tech-enabled businesses like Graphcore that are at the forefront of innovation in their sector. We are excited to partner with Nigel and the strong management team to support the company’s continued growth and product development.”
The company is backed by Ahren Innovation Capital, Amadeus Capital Partners, Atomico, Baillie Gifford, BMW iVentures, C4 Ventures, Dell Technologies Capital, Draper Esprit, Fidelity International, Foundation Capital, Chrysalis Investments (formerly Merian Chrysalis), Mayfair Equity Partners, M&G Investments, Microsoft, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, Pitango, Robert Bosch Venture Capital, Samsung Catalyst Fund, Schroders / Schroder Adveq, Sequoia Capital and Sofina.
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