South Korean fabless startup MetisX raises $44m Series A funding to accelerate growth

MetisX, a fabless startup based in South Korea, has secured $44 million in Series A funding, bringing its total funding to over $50 million. The company, established in 2022, focuses on developing intelligent memory solutions using Compute Express Link (CXL) technology, which is seen as the next-generation standard for interconnect technology. MetisX aims to revolutionize traditional CPU-centric computing architectures by introducing a data-centric approach that promises to be smarter, faster, and more cost-effective.

Jin Kim, CEO and Co-founder, MetisX: "We are pleased to have successfully achieved our Series A funding goal amidst a challenging market environment. Our goal is to become the next NVIDIA, not by competing directly against them, but by creating a new market in the data-centric domain to pave the way for the AI era."

One of the company's primary goals is to address the "memory wall" issue that many industries face, particularly those dealing with vast amounts of data such as data centers, database management, artificial intelligence, and DNA analysis. By leveraging CXL technology, MetisX seeks to overcome performance bottlenecks associated with frequent memory accesses in computing systems.

Despite being in the early stages of development, MetisX has attracted significant attention from new investors such as SV Investment, STIC Ventures, LB Investment, and the Industrial Bank of Korea, as well as follow-on investors from the seed round including Mirae Asset Venture Investment, Mirae Asset Capital, IMM Investment, SBI Investment, Tony Investment, and Wonik Investment Partners. These firms have made bold bets on the company's potential, both in terms of its innovative product offerings and the expertise of its leadership team.

MetisX has already made significant strides in product development, having completed prototypes specialized in large-scale data processing such as vector databases, big data analysis, and DNA analysis. These prototypes have demonstrated impressive performance, being twice as fast as conventional server CPUs. Building on this success, the company plans to manufacture its inaugural ASIC chip by early next year, targeting major data center customers including tech giants such as Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta. MetisX plans to expand the company aggressively, establish a branch in the US, and reinforce its marketing and sales organization to successfully penetrate its target market.

www.metisx.com

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