Total amount raised
$1 Billions
Latest funding date
Location
Title
Groq has successfully raised $640 million in a BlackRock-led funding round, achieving a valuation of $2.8 billion. The company specializes in AI inference technology, offering products like GroqCloud™ to accelerate AI, ML, and HPC workloads.
Keep reading to explore the intricacies of Groq's fundraising journey and the investors backing this innovative platform.
What Is Groq?
Founded in 2016 by Jonathan Ross, Groq is headquartered in Mountain View, California. The company focuses on simplifying compute to accelerate workloads in AI, machine learning, and high-performance computing.
Groq's technology is designed to handle complex computations required for machine learning models, particularly in deep learning and neural networks. Their products, such as GroqCloud™, offer high performance with lower power consumption, making them suitable for large-scale AI deployments.
With a team of 251-500 employees, Groq continues to innovate in the AI inference space, providing solutions that ensure deterministic performance and predictable outcomes in AI computations.
How Much Funding Has Groq Raised?
- Series A
- Amount Raised: $10.3M
- Date: April 2017
- Lead Investors: Social Capital
- Valuation at Round: Not publicly disclosed
- Motivation Behind the Round: To establish initial operations and develop core AI inference technology.
- Series B
- Amount Raised: $52.3M
- Date: September 2018
- Lead Investors: Social Capital
- Valuation at Round: Not publicly disclosed
- Motivation Behind the Round: To scale product development and expand market reach.
- Series B
- Amount Raised: Not publicly disclosed
- Date: August 2020
- Lead Investors: D1 Capital Partners, Infinitum Partners
- Valuation at Round: Not publicly disclosed
- Motivation Behind the Round: To enhance AI inference capabilities and support growing customer base.
- Series C
- Amount Raised: $300M
- Date: April 2021
- Lead Investors: D1 Capital Partners, Tiger Global Management
- Valuation at Round: Not publicly disclosed
- Motivation Behind the Round: To accelerate product innovation and expand into new markets.
- Secondary Market
- Amount Raised: Not publicly disclosed
- Date: June 2024
- Lead Investors: Not publicly disclosed
- Valuation at Round: Not publicly disclosed
- Motivation Behind the Round: To provide liquidity to early investors and employees.
- Secondary Market
- Amount Raised: Not publicly disclosed
- Date: August 2024
- Lead Investors: Not publicly disclosed
- Valuation at Round: Not publicly disclosed
- Motivation Behind the Round: To provide liquidity to early investors and employees.
- Series D
- Amount Raised: $640M
- Date: August 2024
- Lead Investors: BlackRock, Alumni Ventures
- Valuation at Round: $2.8B
- Motivation Behind the Round: To deploy over 100,000 LPUs and scale GroqCloud's capacity.
Groq has raised a total of $1.0026 billion and is currently valued at $2.8 billion.
Key Investors
- BlackRock Private Equity Partners
- Details: A division of BlackRock, one of the world's largest asset management firms. They focus on private equity investments across various sectors.
- Investment Focus Areas: Technology, healthcare, consumer goods.
- Notable Investments: Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet.
- Neuberger Berman
- Details: An independent, employee-owned investment management firm. They manage a diverse portfolio including equities, fixed income, private equity, and hedge funds.
- Investment Focus Areas: Technology, healthcare, financial services.
- Notable Investments: Uber, Palantir, Airbnb.
- Type One Ventures
- Details: A venture capital firm focused on early-stage investments. They primarily invest in innovative technology startups.
- Investment Focus Areas: AI, machine learning, emerging tech companies.
- Notable Investments: Not publicly disclosed.
- Cisco Investments
- Details: The corporate venture capital arm of Cisco Systems. They make strategic investments in technology companies that align with Cisco's business interests.
- Investment Focus Areas: Networking, cybersecurity, enterprise software.
- Notable Investments: AppDynamics, ThousandEyes, Acacia Communications.
- Samsung Catalyst Fund
- Details: The venture capital arm of Samsung Electronics. They invest in early to growth-stage companies in advanced technology sectors.
- Investment Focus Areas: Semiconductors, AI, IoT, digital health.
- Notable Investments: Graphcore, Habana Labs, IonQ.
What's Next for Groq?
Groq stands at the cusp of a significant opportunity, poised to expand its market share in the AI inference space. With plans to deploy over 108,000 LPUs by the end of Q1 2025, the company aims to meet the soaring demand for fast AI inference. This expansion is bolstered by a $640 million Series D funding round, which has brought Groq's valuation to $2.8 billion. The company’s GroqCloud platform, already supporting over 360,000 developers, is set to grow further with new models and features.
Future fundraising opportunities seem promising, given the strong investor confidence demonstrated in the recent funding round. Strategic partnerships with major firms like Cisco and Samsung, along with the addition of industry veterans to the leadership team, suggest that Groq could attract further investment to support its ambitious growth plans. However, the company will face challenges, including competition from established players like NVIDIA and the technical hurdles of deploying a large number of LPUs. Maintaining innovation and scaling operations efficiently will be crucial for Groq's continued success.
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