• Backed by Foresight’s Ventures team since 2020, US based Ayar Labs is the leader in optical interconnect solutions which maximise the efficiency of AI infrastructure
• Ayar Labs has secured funding to continue to address the urgent growing need for scalable, cost-effective AI infrastructure

London, December, 2024: Foresight Group LLP (“Foresight”) a leading venture capital, private equity and infrastructure investment manager, announces that portfolio company Ayar Labs (“Ayar Labs” or “the Company”), has completed a $155million funding round that values the business at more than $1billion.

Ayar Labs has secured funding to continue to address the urgent need for scalable, cost-effective AI infrastructure. Capital was secured from a number of high quality investors including Light Street Capital, Advent Global Opportunities, AMD Ventures, Intel Capital and NVIDIA.

Ayar Labs is the leader in optical interconnect solutions that move data at the speed of AI. Recognising that the complexity and size of AI models are increasing at a rate that traditional interconnect technology cannot handle, the Company has developed the industry’s first optical I/O solution that enables customers to maximize the compute efficiency and performance of growing AI infrastructure, while reducing costs, latency and power consumption therefore dramatically improving profitability metrics for AI applications.

Based on open standards and optimised for both AI training and inference, Ayar Labs’ optical I/O solution is backed by a robust ecosystem that enables it to integrate smoothly into AI systems at scale. Ayar Labs was founded in 2015.

Ayar Labs first in-package optical I/O solution replaces electrical I/O that is standards-based, commercial-ready, and optimised for AI training and inference.
 
Mark Wade, CEO of Ayar Labs comments: “We are delighted to close the round and we’d like to express our thanks to Foresight Ventures and their international team including Richard Lewis (London) and Joe Raffa (Silicon Valley) for their ongoing support since their original investment in 2020.” 

Richard Lewis, Managing Director of Foresight's Venture team comments: “Foresight would like to congratulate Mark Wade and the team for their exceptional work in closing this funding round and we look forward to supporting the company in the coming years.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors

For more information contact:
Chris Barry, Influential: Barry@thisisinfluential.com / +44 (0)7733 103 693
Lucy Sherwood, Foresight Group: marketing@foresightgroup.eu / +44 (0)20 3667 8100

About Foresight’s Ventures Strategy
Foresight's Ventures team makes equity investments into fast-growing companies that are building some of the most exciting deep tech, hard tech and enterprise software. It is part of Foresight Group’s award-winning Private Equity division, which specialises in growth & buyout, venture capital and private credit. Its investment team is based across the UK and Ireland, with venture partners based in the US, Israel and UAE. 
Foresight Group, with over £12 billion AUM, invests to support the energy transition, decarbonise industry, enhance nature recovery and realise the economic potential and positive impact of ambitious companies.