Emeryville-based startup Ayar Labs announced Thursday that it raised $35 million in a Series B co-led by Downing Ventures and BlueSky Capital.
The additional capital will be used to accelerate the development and commercialization of the company’s core product, TeraPHY.
The company’s in-package optical input/output (I/O) solution is used for high bandwidth applications that require low latency and power efficient interconnects. TeraPHY is described by the company as a high-density electronic-photonic chiplet that fully integrates into traditional semiconductor packages.
In simpler terms, TeraPHY moves data from computer chip to computer chip by using light instead of electricity transmitted through copper wires. Photonic circuits only require a limited amount of energy due to the fact that light produces far less heat than electricity, and they’re also less susceptible to changes in temperature.
“Artificial intelligence, forms computing and telco applications are all driving insatiable demand for bandwidth and power efficiency,” Hugo Saleh, VP of marketing and business development at Ayar Labs, said in a statement. “Optical I/O is the perfect solution to that, it’s going to give you the dramatically increased bandwidth density, much lower power and much longer reach.”
The new funds will also be used to expand the size of Ayar’s team. The company is now hiring for several open positions at its second office in Santa Clara. Multiple roles are available in engineering, manufacturing, marketing, product management and more.
“The investment interest from new and existing strategic and financial investors despite these difficult global times allows us to continue executing our long-range plan for making Ayar Labs Optical I/O a ubiquitous computing solution,” Charles Wuischpard, CEO of Ayar Labs, said in a statement.
TeraPHY requires 10x less power than traditional bandwidth solutions, according to the company.
“This technology is truly disruptive. It’s going to enable all new system architectures for AI and HPC. It’s going to reduce power and increase performance for cloud applications,” Saleh continued. “It’s going to result in better aerospace systems, better navigation, better radar, and ultimately it’s also going to be what’s going to power the next generation of telecommunications.”
