Round Led by LA-Based Oakmont Corporation And Supported by Existing Investors
CAMPBELL, Calif., December 02, 2018 – Wave Computing®, the Silicon Valley company that is accelerating artificial intelligence (AI) from the cloud to the edge, today announced the successful close of its Series E funding round at $86 million, bringing total investment in Wave to over $200 million. Led by the Los Angeles-based office of Oakmont Corporation and supported by existing investors, proceeds from the round will be used to fuel Wave’s worldwide growth and evolution of company’s structure in support of its strategic and commercial scale out plans for 2019 and beyond.
Closure of Wave’s Series E round adds to the Company’s industry momentum and recent achievements. These include finalizing the integration of the MIPS acquisition, successful completion of early access AI systems testing, being recognized by the Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA) as a finalist for the 2018 “Most Respected Private Semiconductor Company” award, and expanding Wave’s global team to more than 200 people with recent hires in the United States, Sri Lanka and the Philippines. In the coming weeks, Wave also will be moving into its new worldwide headquarters facility in Campbell, California.
“We continue to be humbled by the ongoing enthusiastic support from new and existing investors,” said Derek Meyer, Chief Executive Officer of Wave Computing. “With the support of the Wave Board and our industry advisors, we are in an even stronger position to lead the Company through its next phase of growth and evolution. Our recent achievements underscore Wave’s momentum, and we look forward to sharing more details of our progress in the coming months.”
“Wave Computing is a recognized leader in the AI industry with a unique market position,” said Greg Corona of Lakewood & Company, who will be joining Wave’s Board on behalf of Series E investors. “The Company’s vision, management, highly differentiated technologies, defensible competitive advantages and market traction will continue to serve Wave well in its next stage of development.”
“Oakmont and Greg share our long-term strategic vision and bring a wealth of experience in closely partnering with management teams to take governance models and operating structures to the next level,” said Dado Banatao, Wave’s Founder and Chairman. “This comes at the perfect time for Wave and will help ensure our industry leadership will continue for years to come.”
Greenhill & Co., Inc. is serving as financial advisor to Wave Computing.
About Wave Computing
Wave Computing, Inc. is the Silicon Valley company that is revolutionizing AI with its dataflow-based architecture, systems and solutions. The Company’s vision is to “follow the data” and bring deep learning to customers’ data wherever it may be—from the datacenter to the edge of the Cloud. Wave is powering the next generation of AI by combining its dataflow architecture with its MIPS embedded RISC multi-threaded CPU cores and IP. Offering its solutions to customers globally, Wave Computing has been named Frost & Sullivan’s 2018 “Machine Learning Industry Technology Innovation Leader,” and has been recognized by CIO Application Magazine’s as one of the “Top 25 Artificial Intelligence Providers.” Combined with MIPS, Wave now has over 400 granted and pending patents.
About Lakewood & Company
Lakewood & Company is a private investment firm founded in 2005 and completes direct investments in venture capital and private equity with offices in Atlanta, Los Angeles and Silicon Valley.