Santa Clara, California-based semiconductor design startup Astera Labs galloped into the unicorn club after securing $150 million in its Series D, led by Fidelity Management and Research, with a $3.15 billion valuation.
The startup last raised a $50 million Series C, headed by Fidelity, in September 2021, valuing it at $950 million. Some of the largest chipmakers in the world, such as Intel and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., rely on Astera Labs for data and memory connectivity solutions.
This year, the upstart chip manufacturer will use the additional financing to double its employees, diversify its product offerings, and open two new research and design labs in Toronto and Vancouver. Due to supply chain and manufacturing concerns that have caused chaos on the market, semiconductor manufacturing has been in the headlines for several years.
“The latest funding round is a testament that we are not only invested in the right growth markets such as Cloud, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Hyperscale infrastructure but that we are also able to execute and deliver connectivity products that are critical to our customers and partners,” said Jitendra Mohan, CEO, Astera Labs.
Additionally, Dr. Alexis Black Bjorlin, Meta’s vice president of infrastructure, and Michael Hurlston, Synaptics Incorporated’s president and CEO, were voted to Astera Labs’ board of directors.
The startup is a leader in advancing AI and ML
The startup, founded in 2017, has raised more than $200 million so far. Astera Labs Inc. designs solutions for purpose-built memory and data connectivity to eliminate performance bottlenecks throughout the data center.
Through the use of CXLTM, PCIe®, and Ethernet technologies, the company’s silicon, software, and system-level connection solutions help achieve the vision of artificial intelligence and machine learning in the cloud.
Astera Labs has created three industry-leading, first-to-market products in just five years to provide data centers with better bandwidth, more memory capacity, and reliable communication using the Compute Express LinkTM (CXLTM), PCIe®, and Ethernet technologies.
Leveraging the new CXL industry standard, its latest product line, the Leo Memory Connectivity Platform, supports the move to heterogeneous and composable architectures for next-generation data centers and enables the mainstreaming of AI and ML in the Cloud.
“Astera Labs has successfully executed its vision to be the Cloud industry’s trusted connectivity partner,” said Stefan Dyckerhoff, Managing Director at Sutter Hills Ventures and Board Member of Astera Labs.
