Patient capital fund Ahren Innovation Capital today announced its participation in the $200m series D round of Graphcore, a UK-based machine intelligence technology developer linked to University of Bristol.
The series D closed in December 2018 at a $1.7bn post-money valuation, though Ahren’s contribution was not disclosed at the time.
The round was co-led by holding company Sofina and investment firm Atomico and backed by BMW iVentures, Robert Bosch Venture Capital (RBVC) and Dell Technologies Capital: respective investment subsidiaries for carmaker BMW, industrial product manufacturer Bosch and computer vendor Dell.
Consumer electronics manufacturer Samsung also participated, together with venture firms Amadeus Capital Partners, Sequoia Capital, C4 Ventures, Draper Esprit, Foundation Capital and Pitango, as well as multiple vehicles run by Merian Global Investors including the Merian Chrysalis Fund.
Graphcore has created a processor dubbed the intelligence processing unit (IPU), which has been tailored to artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Following its contribution, Ahren expects Graphcore to benefit from its expertise in machine learning and deep technologies.
The company was originally spun out of University of Bristol-founded chipmaker Xmos in June 2016, and is listed as an alumni business of the university’s SetSquared Bristol incubator.
Graphcore has now raised $310m altogether, including $50m in a November 2017 series C round led by Sequoia that included Dell Technologies Capital, RBVC and Samsung’s Catalyst Fund.
Amadeus, Atomico, C4, Draper Esprit, Foundation Capital and Pitango filled out the round, which followed a $30m Atomico-led series B round four months earlier that featured all the above investors bar Sequoia in addition to assorted business angels.
RBVC had led a $30m series A round for Graphcore the previous year, investing alongside Samsung Catalyst Fund, Pitango, Foundation, Amadeus, Draper Esprit and C4.
The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.