Oriole Networks raises £10M in seed funding to revolutionize AI data center efficiency

Oriole Networks raises £10M in seed funding to revolutionize AI data center efficiency

Oriole Networks, a UCL spinout, raised £10M in funding to reduce energy consumption in AI data centers, one of the largest seed rounds recently.

• Investors: The round was co-led by UCL Technology Fund, Clean Growth Fund, XTX Ventures, and Dorilton Ventures.

• Technology: Oriole's technology aims to reduce energy consumption in AI data centers by using light beams to connect GPU networks, potentially increasing data transfer speed by a hundred times.

• Product Development: Each technology element has been proven individually, and the full network has been simulated, with deployment expected in several years.

• Team: CEO James Regan has successfully built tech companies from university spinouts before, such as EFFECT Photonics, valued at half a billion dollars. The team includes Professor George Zervas, Alessandro Ottino, and Joshua Benjamin, with the GPU connections relying on Zervas's research primarily.

Data centers currently account for close to 3% of EU electricity demand, expected to rise by at least 28% before 2030, and US centers’ energy usage will double between 2022 and 2030.