Innovium, Inc., which develops switching silicon for cloud and edge data centers, says it has accrued $170 million in additional equity funding. Funding sources included newcomers such as Premji Invest, DFJ Growth, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, and “multiple strategic investors.” Existing investors such as Greylock, Capricorn, WRVI, Qualcomm Ventures, Redline, S-Cubed Capital, and DAG participated as well. Innovium now touts itself as “the first network silicon company to achieve unicorn status.”
The company’s activities currently focus on its TERALYNX family of silicon offerings, which range from 1 Tbps to 25.6 Tbps based on an architecture that scales to 51.2 Tbps or more, Innovium asserts (see, for example, “Innovium sampling TERALYNX switch silicon for 12.8 Tbps throughput” and “Lumentum, Innovium achieve 400G FR4 transceiver, TERALYNX Switch ASIC interoperability”). The company adds that the TERALYNX portfolio has been “selected and validated” by OEM, cloud, and ODM customers. The new funding “delivers a multi-year runway,” in the words of an Innovium press release, while supporting additional R&D and customer engagement activities.
“We are delighted at the strong adoption at leading OEM, cloud, and ODM customers for our TERALYNX family, which resulted in over 20% market share for 50G SerDes switch silicon in our first year of shipments. This additional funding, achieved despite ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty, validates our vision, execution, and momentum in a multi-billion secular high-growth market,” said Rajiv Khemani, co-founder and CEO of Innovium.
“Data centers are expected to see secular long-term expansion from cloud, 5G, AI, and remote-work applications. Innovative TERALYNX switch silicon products from Innovium have already been adopted by world’s leading hyperscale cloud providers and leading OEMs including Cisco. We are excited to partner with Innovium for its roadmap innovation and help accelerate go-to-market ramp up,” added TK Kurien, managing partner and chief investment officer at Premji Invest.
Company update
Innovium took the opportunity the funding announcement afford to provide an update of its activities during the first half of the year. The company saw revenues climb 5X year on year over the past six months, with design wins, deployments, and trials at the majority of the world’s top 25 cloud customers, the company states. Meanwhile, the company continued to ramp volume production of TERALYNX 7 while increasing shipments of its TERALYNX 5 for ToR, edge, and 5G applications. The company also introduced the TERALYNX 8, a 25.6-Tbps switch with 112G SerDes. Innovium discussed its work in this last area during an OIF-presented webcast, “Cu (see you) Beyond 112 Gbps.”
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Stephen Hardy | Editorial Director and Associate Publisher, Lightwave
Stephen Hardy is editorial director and associate publisher of Lightwave and Broadband Technology Report, part of the Lighting & Technology Group at Endeavor Business Media. Stephen is responsible for establishing and executing editorial strategy across the both brands’ websites, email newsletters, events, and other information products. He has covered the fiber-optics space for more than 20 years, and communications and technology for more than 35 years. During his tenure, Lightwave has received awards from Folio: and the American Society of Business Press Editors (ASBPE) for editorial excellence. Prior to joining Lightwave in 1997, Stephen worked for Telecommunications magazine and the Journal of Electronic Defense.
Stephen has moderated panels at numerous events, including the Optica Executive Forum, ECOC, and SCTE Cable-Tec Expo. He also is program director for the Lightwave Innovation Reviews and the Diamond Technology Reviews.
He has written numerous articles in all aspects of optical communications and fiber-optic networks, including fiber to the home (FTTH), PON, optical components, DWDM, fiber cables, packet optical transport, optical transceivers, lasers, fiber optic testing, and more.
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