Carlsbad’s GigaIO raises nearly $15M to help more companies catch the artificial intelligence wave

Carlsbad’s GigaIO, which developed technology aimed at making high-performance computing more accessible to more companies so they can tap into artificial intelligence, has raised $14.7 million in a second round of venture capital funding.

Founded in 2012, GigaIO’s FabreX is a hardware and software network platform that increases flexibility and efficiency for data intensive computing jobs, enabling faster results. In simple terms, it turns disparate computer servers, graphics processing units (GPUs), accelerators, memory, storage and other gear into something akin to Lego bricks: The pieces snap together and work without losing performance, and they can be unplugged and reconfigured to fit the next job.

“We connect together all of the various equipment in the data center or out on the edge fast enough that people can arrange any one of those pieces however they want,” said Alan Benjamin, president and chief executive of GigaIO. “A number of companies have tried the concept that we are doing, and nobody has ever cracked the nut on how to do it.”

Venture capitalists once told Benjamin what GigaIO was trying to do “couldn’t be done,” said Mike Krenn, head of Connect/San Diego Venture Group, in a social media post. “A few years later, a $15 million Series B in the bank. Love this!”

With the venture money, GigaIO plans to accelerate sales and marketing. Those efforts were hamstrung during the pandemic because it was difficult to perform hardware testing in computing facilities.

But interest has picked up recently, particularly as more companies work to analyze data so they can develop artificial intelligence algorithms. This summer, the San Diego Supercomputer Center was awarded a $5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a Prototype National Research Platform for data-intensive science projects. GigaIO’s technology is part of the Supercomputer Center’s effort.

Impact Venture Capital led the funding round, which included participation by Mark IV Capital, Lagomai Capital, SK Hynix and Four Palms Ventures.

“We believe that the company is a catalyst for the next generation of data and storage performance and represents an ideal artificial intelligence startup that we seek to partner with and invest in,” said Jack Crawford, founding general partner at Impact Venture Capital.

“We are thrilled to partner with Alan and the entire GigaIO team on their journey to establish a new model for data center infrastructure,” added Michael Beaudoin, of Mark IV Capital.” “By leveraging the power of a universal composable fabric, GigaIO is delivering a powerful solution, making high performance computing and artificial intelligence more accessible to its customers.”