France-based Kalray, a fabless developer of high-performance, low-power 'manycore' microprocessors:
1. Founded as a spin-off by technology investment firm CEA Investissement in 2008 and developer of the patented massively parallel manycore architecture, MPPA (massively parallel processor array).
2. Offering manycore processors designed to enable high performance computing with low power consumption and low latency targeting embedded applications including autonomous vehicles and acceleration in data centres.
Has announced the completion of a new round of funding totalling $26 million that was led by new investor Safran, with participation from Asian investor, Pengpai, also a new investor, ACE Management, CEA Investissement, EUREKAP! Héléa Financière and INOCAP Gestion. Kalray has raised a total of over $65 million in capital and public funding from investors including Bpifrance.
Kalray stated that the new funding round will be used to accelerate the commercial exploitation of its existing solutions and to begin the development of the MPPA Coolidge, its 3rd generation of microprocessors, which is scheduled to be released in 2018. It also plans to expand its team, in particular its engineering team in Grenoble, and to strengthen its commercial network internationally. Leveraging a fabless model, Kalray has partnered with major chip company TSMC for production of its solution.
The company noted that since its spin-off from CEA in 2008 it has developed the massively parallel manycore architecture for its microprocessors that is protected by over 20 international patents. The MPPA technology is designed to increase processors' real-time processing abilities while maintaining low power consumption.
Kalray's microprocessors are utilised in two key markets - critical embedded applications (such as aeronautics/defence and autonomous vehicles), and data centres, for storage acceleration and high-speed networking).
The company stated that it is expanding its international presence, and now has 65 employees, distributed across its home base in Grenoble, France and its North American operation in Los Altos, California. Kalray also has an office in Tokyo, Japan.
