Only a few companies can boast that the leading technology remnants are investing in them, and even competing with each other as to which of them will increase its holdings. One such company is the Israeli company Pliops, which today raised $ 65 million under the leadership of the investment fund of the American corporation Koch (KDT – Koch Disruptive Technologies) and increased the holding of the chip giant Anvidia in the company.
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Along with Anvidia, Intel Capital, Intel Investment Fund, Western Digital Storage Fund Investment Fund, Zeilinks chip design company, Softbank Investment Fund in Asia, European fund Expon Capital and the Israeli funds Viola, Sweet , And Pinchas Buharis’ SOMV.
Last December, Eyal Waldman, the founder of Mellanox, which was sold to Anvidia, joined the company’s board of directors. In the investment round in 2019, Mellanox invested in the Israeli company, and today Anvidia, which acquired Mellonox, is increasing its investment in Pliops. “We have a deep collaboration with them,” says Phillips CEO Uri Beitler about Anvidia’s extensive investment in the company. A small portion of the investment was used to buy shares of one of the company’s investors. “We refused other companies the size of Anvidia and large funds. The problem of data and the ability to access it is very deep in the world. There is a huge gap between what computing capabilities can give, and processors are a significant bottleneck. The market is looking for disruptive technologies to this world. A solution like ours, which disrupts this whole world, is very strategically interesting, “Beitler added.” Companies that produce significant technology have market demand. Koch, who led the round, is looking to build big companies. We’re not a Unicorn yet, and the next round might be an IPO, and we’ll be sure to be a Unicorn in the next round. We have offers for sale that we have given up. We see companies going public and becoming significant – and aiming as high as possible. ”
Founders of Phillips Uri Beitler, Moshe Twito and Aryeh Margie Photo: Playoffs
The global chip and storage industries are currently in a period of acceleration and huge demand, with the industry barely able to meet the demand. Phillips is developing a chip that is at the core of one of the hottest industries today, and is data centers. The world of technology today is moving through huge data centers of social networks and other giant companies, such as Amazon and Google. The endless need for advanced storage and management capabilities, and fast and cost-effective processing, leads them to look for the most advanced technologies for these needs, and there is Phillips, founded in 2017 by three industry veterans: Beitler, who previously ran SamsungSnog Flash Controller Development Center in Israel; Chief Technology Officer Moshe Twito, who previously served as Chief Technologist at Samsung’s Development Center; and Chairman of the Board Arie Margie, who was one of the founders of M-System and XtremeIO.
In an interview with Calcalist, Beitler said that “the amount of data in the world is enormous, and what we know to do is give fast and continuous access to data stored in the cloud and in private data centers. The immediate market for our product, which processes the data, is about $ 10 billion. We have a first generation of product, which we will launch in April, and there are first customers we talk to. We divide our customers into three: the big cloud players; huge companies that hold data with them, like Apple; and giant Fortune 500 corporations. We have initial deals. “With such companies. The small deals are worth millions of dollars,” Beitler added.
Eyal Waldman. Joined the board of directors of Phillips last December Photo: Courtesy of Mellanox Technologies
Phillips, which is its second round of funding, and has raised a total of $ 115 million so far, employs about 70 people in Ramat Gan and its offices in San Jose, California, and more global offices are set to open next year. “The costs of developing and manufacturing chips are not simple, and we already expect to sell tens of millions of dollars in the coming years from the first generation,” Beitler explained. “The recruitment is enough for us to make the leap we need, and we have more money from the previous rounds. We produce the chips and the card on which it sits. The chip is made in the East and the card is assembled in Israel.”
Eli Gruner, Managing Director of KDT: Phillips is reinventing, in effect, the ways to deal with one of the critical and information-intensive challenges in a very large, ever-growing market. Its technology can be widely applied, not only for the typical information uses today, but also for future uses. “
“Phillips’ technology accelerates ministerial applications growing at the fastest pace and generating increased demand for computing and storage performance in data centers,” said Nimrod Gindi, senior vice president of investment at Anvidia. “DPU, together with Phillips’ storage processor, to create accelerated cloud and ML solutions, will lead to exceptional performance and unprecedented efficiency for our customers.”