EPFL spinout Kandou has pushed its total funding to $96m following a series C round that featured Swisscom Ventures and its Digital Transformation Fund.
Kandou Bus, a Switzerland-based fabless semiconductor spinout of Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), collected $56m in a series C round on Monday featuring telecoms firm Swisscom.
Bessemer Venture Partners, Columbia Lake Partners, Fayerweather Capital Partners, Forestay Capital, Kreos Capital, Raging Capital and Walden International also contributed to the round.
Swisscom participated through its corporate venturing subsidiary, Swisscom Ventures, and the division’s Digital Transformation Fund, backed by the corporate and external investors.
Founded in 2011, Kandou Bus is working on IT components that increase the speed and reliability of data transfer between devices while requiring minimal amounts of power.
Kandou initially focused on licensing its technology but now plans to launch a series of products for consumer applications. These are set to include components for USB4, which will succeed USB-C and double its data transfer capacity.
Kandou advances research by chief executive Amin Shokrollahi, a professor in EPFL’s Laboratory of Algorithmic Mathematics.
The spinout will use the money to scale all aspects of its operations and extend the development and deployment of its products.
Bessemer and Walden previously injected $15m in series B funding in July 2018, after Bessemer had already supplied $15m in funding in 2016. A group of undisclosed investors had backed a $10m series A round in 2012.