Salience Labs raises $30 million Series A
The company, which is developing optical switches for connectivity between AI clusters, has also announced the appointment of a new board member and a new chief financial officer
Salience Labs, a company focusing on photonic solutions targeting connectivity for AI datacentre infrastructure, has announced the successful close of $30 million in Series A financing led by ICM HPQC Fund and Applied Ventures, LLC, the venture capital arm of Applied Materials, Inc., to further the development of its optical switches for large-scale AI connectivity. Applied Ventures and ICM HPQC Fund are joined by Strategic Investment Fund, Braavos, and continued participation from existing investors Oxford Sciences Enterprises, Cambridge Innovation Capital, and leaders from the global semiconductor industry including Silicon Catalyst and Jalal Bagherli.
“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.”
Anand Kamannavar, VP and global head of Applied Ventures, said: “Silicon photonics is a promising technology to deliver significant advancements in energy-efficient performance for AI datacentres. Salience's optical switch solution has the potential to enable a new generation of interconnect network architectures for faster and more efficient AI systems.”
William Jeffrey joins board of directors
In conjunction with the closing of the Series A financing, Salience Labs is appointing William Jeffrey to the board of directors. Jeffrey is an astronomer whose career has included working in the Executive Office of the President of the United States, leading HRL Laboratories, directing the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and serving as CEO of SRI International.
Bonnie Tomei joins as chief financial officer
Salience Labs is also announcing its appointment of Bonnie Tomei, a certified public accountant 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, Ms. Tomei will be a key member of the executive team to realise our strategic and operational objectives, including expanding to the US to serve our key customers,” said Kewada.
Image credit: Shabbir Bashar
