AI data acceleration startup Pliops loses over 80% of value in merger with Kalray
The Israeli startup, which develops acceleration solutions for AI and storage servers in data centers, raised $100 million at a valuation of over $650 million in August 2022. However, its shareholders will receive only around $100 million-worth of Kalray shares in the merger.
Israeli startup Pliops, which develops acceleration solutions for AI and storage servers in data centers, is set to merge with Kalray, a French provider of advanced data processing solutions.
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Pliops, founded in 2017, has raised over $200 million to date from leading investors including Koch Disruptive Technologies, State of Mind Ventures Momentum, Intel Capital, Viola Ventures, SoftBank Ventures Asia, Expon Capital, NVIDIA, AMD, Western Digital, SK hynix and Alicorn. It was last valued at around $650-700 million when it raised a $100 million Series D in August 2022. However, the merger terms propose that Kalray shareholders will hold 65% of the new entity, with Pliops shareholders holding up to 35%, potentially increasing to 40% upon achieving strategic milestones.
Kalray is currently being traded at a value of around just $150 million, and the company is expected to issue new shares to be given to the shareholders of Pliops. Consequently, the value of the merged company, assuming the share price remains the same as today, will be approximately 240 million euros, and the value of Pliops will be about $100 million, over 80% less than the company was valued two years ago.
“By combining Pliops and Kalray's exceptional assets, we are poised to enhance business opportunities for both companies,” said Eyal Waldman, founder of Mellanox and Chairman of Waldo Holdings, who has served on the Pliops board since 2020 and was recently named as chairman.
“This proposed merger with Pliops represents a major strategic opportunity,” said Eric Baissus, CEO of Kalray. “By combining our strengths, we aim to become the global leader in data acceleration solutions for storage and AI GPUs.”
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Pliops, which employs around 120 people, was founded by Uri Beitler, Aryeh Mergi and Moshe Twitto. Beitler was replaced as CEO last June by Ido Bukspan, who previously served as SVP of Chip Design at NVIDIA. Beitler became Chief Strategy & Business Development officer.
Pliops has developed technology that provides a solution for the rapidly growing volumes of data and solves the problem of slow computational performance. The company's data processor radically simplifies the way the data is processed and storage is managed at data centers.
