UK-based Salience Labs Limited successfully closes $30 million in series A financing led by ICM HPQC Fund and Applied Ventures, LLC, the venture capital arm of Applied Materials. Joining them were Braavos along with existing investors Oxford Sciences Enterprises, Cabridge Innovation Capital and leaders from the global semiconductor industry including Silicon Catalyst and Jalal Bagherli.
This photonic solutions provider that targets connectivity for AI data center infrastructure will leverage the funds to develop its optical switches for large scale AI connectivity.
“What our customers want is a photonic switch to connect their AI clusters that is compatible with existing infrastructure while delivering high bandwidth, low latency and significant power savings. The completion of this round will further our development and help us bring our product to customers to enable not just the savings, but large cluster connectivity,” said Vaysh Kewada, Co-founder and CEO of Salience Labs. “We are also excited to be working closely with our strategic investors who are industry leaders to advance our go-to market schedule.”
“Silicon photonics is a promising technology to deliver significant advancements in energy-efficient performance for AI data centers,” said Anand Kamannavar, Vice President and Global Head of Applied Ventures. “Salience’s optical switch solution has the potential to enable a new generation of interconnect network architectures for faster and more efficient AI systems.”
“Salience Labs has done a tremendous job in developing a portfolio of innovative silicon photonics products that addresses critical needs in data center and AI infrastructure market,” said Dr. Jalal Bagherli, investor of Salience Labs and former CEO of Dialog Semiconductor that was acquired by Renesas. “Their customer focused approach in addition to the technology that are based on over a decade of research makes Salience Labs a clear leader to win in this enormous market.”
“Salience Lab’s optical switches will enable unprecedented bandwidth and scalability for the next generation of AI and high-performance data centers. By leveraging light, they will unlock the full capability of modern servers while decreasing power consumption and cost. ICM HPQC is excited to work with Vaysh and the Salience team as lead of the Series A raise,” said Dr. William Jeffrey, Chairman of the technical advisory committee on the ICM HPQC Fund and newly appointed Board Member of Salience Labs.
In conjunction with the closing of the Series A financing, Salience Labs is appointing Dr. Jeffrey to the Board of Directors, where he joins Jack Edmondson, Chief Investment Officer of Oxford Sciences Enterprises, and Daniel Armbrust, co-founder of Silicon Catalyst, CEO of the SEMATECH semiconductor consortium and appointee to the Industrial Advisory Committee, which advises the Department of Commerce on the R&D strategy for the CHIPS Act.
Dr. Jeffrey is an astronomer with a career spanning the Executive Office of the President of the United States, to leading HRL (known for its groundbreaking innovations such as the invention of the laser, integrated circuits and liquid crystal displays), to being the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, an institution boasting three Nobel prize laureates and ties to a dozen more, and he served as the CEO of SRI International. Dr. Jeffrey earned a Bachelor of Science in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in astronomy from Harvard University.
Salience Labs is also announcing its appointment of Bonnie Tomei, a certified public accountant and an industry veteran located in Silicon Valley, California, as Chief Financial Officer.
“With over 20 years of experience including initial public offerings, de-SPAC and a strong business operations background, Bonnie will be a key member of the executive team to realize our strategic and operational objectives, including expanding to the U.S. to serve our key customers,” said Vaysh.
