Lausanne, Switzerland-based Kandou, a high-speed, energy-efficient, chip link solutions company, announced that it has raised $75M (approx €66.57M) in its Series D round of funding.
With this, the company has now raised a total of $207.8M (approx €184.46M) in funding from new and existing investors to date. Investors in the company include Bessemer Venture Partners, DC Investment Partners, among others.
Revolutionising wired connectivity with speed and efficiency
Founded in 2011 by Dr. Amin Shokrollahi, a university professor at EPFL and renowned mathematician, Kandou is a fabless semiconductor company that specialises in the design of high-speed and energy-efficient chip-to-chip link solutions to improve the way the world connects and communicates.
The company claims to offer its technology through licensing and standard products for smaller, energy efficient, and cost-effective electronic devices.
Kandou has an IP portfolio that includes Chord signaling, adopted by the OIF and JEDEC standards organisations. It offers fundamental advances in interconnect technology that lower power consumption and improve the performance of chip links, unlocking new capabilities for customer devices and systems.
The company’s first silicon product is called Matterhorn, a USB-C multiprotocol retimer solution with USB4 support for consumer and networking applications for electronic devices.
Kandou says the Matterhorn family of versatile retimers supports long reach with no compromise on signal integrity for more system development and USB4 implementation flexibility. It offers improved user experiences including enhanced display graphics, faster data transfer between USB4-connected devices, and improved battery life of mobile products.
Dr. Shokrollahi says, “Matterhorn is a game-changer. Working with TSMC helped us achieve our goal to deliver high-volume, high-quality, reliable Matterhorn retimer solutions for consumer applications, such as desktop and mobile PCs, tablets and peripheral devices.”
Capital utilisation
The proceeds from this round will be used to ramp production of Kandou’s first silicon product Matterhorn. In addition, the company will also invest in the development of product and technology roadmaps, including new silicon products and Chord signaling intellectual property (IP) for ultra-short reach and long-reach signaling applications.
Dr. Shokrollahi adds, “This round of funding will enable us to meet the demand for Matterhorn from customers while we continue to innovate and deliver high-speed connectivity solutions. We thank Bessemer Venture Partners for their ongoing commitment to us and welcome new Kandou investors participating in this round.”
