$15M for EPFL spinoff Kandou in series B financing round

Kandou has developed Chord signaling for enhanced communications between chips inside electronic systems ranging from mobile devices to hyperscale data centers, high performance computing and artificial intelligence/machine learning applications. Leading semiconductor companies, including Marvell, use Kandou. To expand its research and accelerate the development, productization and deployment of Kandou’s Chord signaling SerDes IP licensing and chip solutions, the startup received $15M from Bessemer Venture Partners and Walden Investment.

Kandou CEO and Founder Amin Shokrollahi’s extensive background in information theory and coding-based signaling led to the invention of Chord signaling. The technology delivers 2-4x more bandwidth while consuming half the power or less of traditional differential signaling. It achieves this by transmitting multiple bits over multiple correlated wires. The result is a better board, pin, and silicon area efficiency while delivering excellent signal integrity through strong resistance to noise encountered in chip-to-chip communication. «Kandou continues to show excellent progress in the development and deployment of Chord signaling-based solutions», said Bessemer Venture Partners’ Felda Hardymon.

Bessemer Venture Partners is a $5B global venture capital firm that invests in consumer, enterprise and healthcare startups including Pinterest, Skype and Blue Apron. It has also helped 122 of its companies go public including Shopify, Yelp and LinkedIn. Walden International is a leading international venture capital firm that manages a total of $2.7B in committed capital and has invested in over 500 companies. «This funding helps Kandou respond to increasing demand for Chord signaling architectures and solutions», said Shokrollahi.

(Press Release/ SOK)