Avicena Raises $25 Million in Series A to Fund Development of High Capacity microLED-based Optical Interconnects

Samsung Catalyst Fund, Cerberus Capital Management, L.P., and Clear Ventures as well as strategic investor Micron Ventures participate in Series A to fast-track Avicena�s revolutionary interconnect technology

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#innovation–AvicenaTech Corp., the leader in microLED-based chip-to-chip interconnects, today announced that the company has secured $25M in Series A funding from Samsung Catalyst Fund, Cerberus Capital Management, Clear Ventures, and Micron Ventures to drive the development of products based on Avicena’s breakthrough photonic I/O solution.

“We believe that Avicena technology can be transformational in unlocking compute-to-memory chip-to-chip high-speed interconnects. Such technology can be central to supporting future disaggregated architectures and distributed high-performance computing (HPC) systems,” said Marco Chisari, EVP of Samsung Electronics and Head of the Samsung Semiconductor Innovation Center.

“We are excited to participate in this round at Avicena,” said Amir Salek, Senior Managing Director at Cerberus Capital Management and former Head of Silicon for Google Infrastructure and Cloud. “Avicena has a highly differentiated technology addressing one of the main challenges in modern computer architecture. The technology offered by Avicena meets the needs for scaling future HPC and cloud compute networks and covers applications in conventional datacenter and 5G cellular networking.”

Avicena’s LightBundle^TM I/O solution eliminates the existing bottlenecks of copper links triggered by power consumption, latency, reach and bandwidth density thus dramatically improving existing system performance. This enables new, dramatically higher-performing architectures in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), cloud computing, next generation cellular radio, remote sensing, and aerospace applications.

The groundbreaking LightBundle^TM technology is based on arrays of GaN micro-emitters that leverage the microLED display ecosystem and can be integrated onto any high-performance CMOS IC. Avicena leverages recent advances in the display industry to enable high volume, low-cost production of highly optimized microLED arrays.

“Avicena’s differentiated interconnect technology promises to enable next-generation high-performance processor and memory clusters,” said Gayathri Radhakrishnan, Senior Director at Micron Ventures. “Avicena represents a strategic investment opportunity for Micron Technology to support innovation in HPC architectures with our partners and customers.”

“We are excited about closing our Series A funding with a distinguished group of existing and new investors,” said Bardia Pezeshki, Founder and CEO of Avicena. “We will use the new funds to scale our team and build initial products for our growing family of partners and customers.”

About Avicena

Avicena is a privately held company located in Mountain View, CA, developing ultra-low energy optical links based on mircoLEDs. These interconnects offer class-leading bandwidth density and energy efficiency for medium reach. Applications include chip-to-chip interconnects in HPC, AI/ML, and memory disaggregation, as well as next generation links in sensors, 5G wireless and aerospace. Avicena’s technology is a key building block in the evolution of new networking and computing architectures that will reduce the energy impact on our planet.

About Samsung Catalyst Fund

Samsung Catalyst Fund (SCF) is Samsung Electronics’ evergreen multi-stage venture capital fund that invests in deep-tech infrastructure and data-enabled platforms. SCF’s sectors of interest span multiple domains including datacenter and cloud, artificial intelligence, networking and 5G, automotive, sensors, quantum computing and beyond. SCF aspires to work closely with brilliant entrepreneurs and disruptive ideas, harnessing our global reach to create value and foster mutual growth and benefits. Among the many advantages our founders enjoy are shared resources, financing, networking, corporate development, and mentorship from SCF’s domain experts.

About Cerberus Capital Management, L.P.

Founded in 1992, Cerberus is a global leader in alternative investing with approximately $60 billion in assets across complementary credit, private equity, and real estate strategies. We invest across the capital structure where our integrated investment platforms and proprietary operating capabilities create an edge to improve performance and drive long-term value. Our tenured teams have experience working collaboratively across asset classes, sectors, and geographies to seek strong risk-adjusted returns for our investors. For more information about our people and platforms, visit us at www.cerberus.com

This press release contains forward-looking statements, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ significantly from those projected. These factors include, but are not limited to, (i) industry adoption of new technologies, (ii) unidentified technical development or production issues, (iii) local and global economic conditions, and (iv) our anticipated growth strategies. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release.

Contacts

Avicena Media Contact:

Sama Pourmojib

email: sama@avicena.tech