GigaIO, a Carlsbad-based start-up technology company, has raised $ 14.7 million from investors in a Series B funding round. The oversubscribed funding round was led by Impact Venture Capital.
Investors in GigaIO
Founded in 2012, the hardware startup has attracted significant investor interest. Key investors in the gigaIO Series B funding round include Four Palms Ventures, Impact Venture Capital, Lagomaj Capital, Mark IV Capital and SK Hynix. In total, investors have contributed $ 19.2 million in funding to the company.
“We are excited to lead this funding round, including a joint venture from SK Hynix, and we believe GigaIO’s game-changing technology and equipment will continue to revolutionize the way organizations manage data,” said Jack Crawford, General Partner. founder of Impact Venture Capital. Impact Venture Capital has invested in several successful start-ups, including Pondera, Revionics, and Socati. In March 2021, Yooma Wellness acquired Socati for $ 25 million, one of several successful exits from Impact Venture Capital.
Investor interest in the business includes taking multiple seats on the board. Several investors are on the company’s board of directors, including Heejin Chung (SK Hynix), Jack Crawford Jr. (Impact Venture Capital) and Michael Beaudoin II (Mark IV Capital).
Products for data centers
The startup business offers several hardware and software products designed to increase the speed and performance of the IT infrastructure. The GigaIO FabreX network switch offers speeds of up to 512 Gbps. To put that figure in context, the maximum speed for Wi-Fi 6 is 9.6 Gbps. The hardware startup has also created the GigaCell, which can connect more servers to increase storage or computing speed.
While the business is focused on hardware products, there are also related software products available. The company’s composition software makes it easy to manage rack resources in a data center. Finally, GigaIO has developed host and switch software so that business users can better control their servers.
To sell its infrastructure products, the hardware company has developed relationships with other companies. Current channel partners include Applied DataSystems, International Computer Concepts, SysGen, Technical System Integrators, and World Wide Technology.
Business opportunities in data centers
The development of hardware and software for the data center market gives GigaIO access to a growing market. In the United States (US) alone, the data center market is estimated to be worth $ 8.4 billion based on an estimate from Research and Market. By 2026, the US data center business is estimated to grow to $ 13.9 billion. Due to the pandemic, data center growth has slowed due to construction delays. Outside of the United States, there are even larger data center markets. The data center market in China is projected to grow to $ 32 billion by 2027, according to Research and Market.
Challenges of the pandemic
The startup has faced product development challenges during the pandemic. “Due to the pandemic, hardware testing has been difficult. However, since the beginning of the year, we have been able to bring equipment to the facility, and the results have been fantastic for us,” said Alan Benjamin, President and CEO of GigaIO. .
The startup offers hardware products for data centers. GigaIO technology enables data to be moved in and out of storage faster in data centers.
