SambaNova Systems, a US-based computing technology spinout from Stanford University, has emerged from stealth with $56m from a series A round co-led by GV, the early-stage investment subsidiary of diversified conglomerate Alphabet.

Venture capital firm Walden International co-led the round, which also featured VC firm Redline Capital and growth equity fund Atlantic Bridge Ventures.

Founded in 2017, SambaNova has created a computing platform intended to provide the basis of next-generation data analytics and machine learning applications. The series A funds will be used to recruit more engineers as the spinout looks to further develop its computing platform.

SambaNova’s technology is based on technology developed by Kunle Olukotun, a cadence design professor of electrical engineering and computer science, and Chris Ré, an associate professor in the department of computer science at Stanford University.

Olukotun, who serves as chief technology officer of SambaNova, is known for his pioneering work on multi-core processors. He commercialised that technology through another spinout, server company Afara Websystems, acquired by IT company Sun Microsystems in 2002.

Dave Munichiello, general partner at GV, will take a board seat at SambaNova while Lip-Bu Tan, chairman of Walden, will also assume the chairman role at the spinout.

Rodrigo Liang, chief executive and co-founder of SambaNova, said: “The computing industry is going through a transition with the rapid growth of machine learning and data analytics and we are excited about the opportunities that our technology will create for our partners to develop and deploy the next generation of intelligent applications.

“We have exposed our technology to some of the world’s largest companies across different industries and we are excited about the broad applicability of our technology from enterprise to the edge.”

– A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.

US-based computing technology startup SambaNova Systems has emerged from stealth with $56m from a series A round co-led by GV, the subsidiary of internet technology conglomerate Alphabet formerly known as Google Ventures.

Venture capital firm Walden International co-led the round, which also featured VC firm Redline Capital and growth equity fund Atlantic Bridge Ventures.

Founded in 2017, SambaNova has created a computing platform intended to provide the basis of next-generation data analytics and machine learning applications. The series A funds will be used to recruit more engineers as it looks to further develop its computing platform.

GV general partner Dave Munichiello will take a board seat at SambaNova while Lip-Bu Tan, Walden’s chairman, will also assume the chairman role at the startup.

Munichiello said: “The market for dedicated AI hardware continues to experience exponential growth, and this team uniquely understands how critical adaptability and flexibility are for ever-evolving artificial intelligence and machine learning approaches.

“Other platforms have been designed for AI and machine learning techniques that exist today. SambaNova’s software-defined infrastructure anticipates and supports a rapidly-evolving ecosystem. We firmly believe that over time this computing approach will lead the industry in distributed machine learning and data analytics infrastructure.”

SambaNova’s technology is based on technology developed by Kunle Olukotun, a cadence design professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Stanford University, and Chris Ré, an associate professor in the same university’s department of computer science.