Ahren Innovation Capital has been confirmed as an investor in a round that brought University of Bristol-linked machine intelligence technology developer Graphcore’s total to $310m.
Patient capital fund Ahren Innovation Capital today announced its participation in the $200m series D round of Graphcore, a UK-based machine intelligence technology developer linked to University of Bristol.
The series D closed in December 2018 at a $1.7bn post-money valuation, though Ahren’s contribution was not disclosed at the time.
Co-led by holding company Sofina and investment firm Atomico, the round was also backed by BMW iVentures, Robert Bosch Venture Capital (RBVC) and Dell Technologies Capital – respective investment subsidiaries for carmaker BMW, industrial product manufacturer Bosch and computer vendor Dell.
Consumer electronics manufacturer Samsung also participated, together with venture firms Amadeus Capital Partners, Sequoia CApital, C4 Ventures, Draper Esprit, Foundation Capital and Pitango, as well as multiple vehicles run by Merian Global Investors, including the Merian Chrysalis Fund.
Graphcore has created a processor dubbed the “intelligence processing unit” (IPU) which has been tailored to artificial intelligence (AI) applications.
The IPUs work in tandem with Graphcore’s proprietary software development platform, Poplar, to more effectively support a number of machine intelligence-powered use-cases, including smart voice assistants and autonomous vehicles.
Graphcore has earmarked the series D capital for scaling up its operations, workforce and production capacity. Following its contribution, Ahren expects Graphcore to benefit from its expertise in machine learning and deep technologies.
The company was originally spun out of University of Bristol-founded chipmaker Xmos in June 2016, and is listed as an alumni business of the university’s SetSquared Bristol incubator.
Graphcore has now raised $310m altogether, including $50m of series C funding received from investors led by Sequoia in November 2017.
Dell Technologies Capital and RBVC joined Samsung’s Catalyst Fund in the round alongside Amadeus, Atomico, C4, Draper Esprit, Foundation Capital and Pitango, after a $30m Atomico-led series B round that July featuring all the above investors – bar Sequoia – in addition to assorted business angels.
RBVC had led a series A of the same size for Graphcore the previous year, investing alongside Samsung Catalyst Fund, Pitango, Foundation, Amadeus, Draper Esprit and C4.
