Oriole Networks, a start-up based in London, has secured an additional $22 million in funding, led by Plural, to scale its innovative solution aimed at reducing energy consumption in AI data centers. The funding round included reinvestments from UCL Technology Fund, XTX Ventures, Clean Growth Fund, and Dorilton Ventures. This latest Series A round brings the company’s total funding to $35 million in its first year. Oriole’s photonic technology uses light to create networks of AI chips, significantly boosting speed and reducing latency while using a fraction of the power compared to traditional data centers.
Founded in 2023 from University College London’s optical networking research, Oriole Networks is positioned to address AI’s biggest challenges—speed, latency, and sustainability. Its technology, built on 20 years of research, enables the training of Large Language Models (LLMs) up to 100 times faster while cutting energy consumption drastically. CEO James Regan, formerly of EFFECT Photonics, has assembled a team with deep industry expertise, including key hires from Lumentum. The company’s tech could mitigate the growing energy strain as global demand for data center capacity increases.
The funds will be used to accelerate the company’s growth, expand its team, and engage with high-volume suppliers. Oriole Networks plans to have early-stage products in customer hands by 2025, creating an ecosystem of photonic networking for AI. As AI computing power doubles every 100 days, Oriole’s low-energy solution offers a path forward without increasing carbon emissions.
• Oriole Networks raised $22 million in Series A funding, bringing total funding to $35 million.
• Backed by Plural, UCL Technology Fund, XTX Ventures, Clean Growth Fund, and Dorilton Ventures.
• Technology uses photonics to network AI chips, training LLMs 100x faster with lower power consumption.
• Founded in 2023 from UCL research with CEO James Regan and a team from Lumentum.
• Plans to release products by 2025 to support sustainable AI development.
James Regan, CEO of Oriole Networks, said: “This funding is yet another milestone for Oriole following a year of rapid pace and growth. This is a booming market desperate for solutions and our ambition is to create an ecosystem of photonic networking that can reshape this industry by solving today’s bottlenecks and enabling greater competition at the GPU layer. Building on decades of research, we’re paving the way for faster, more efficient, more sustainable AI.”
Ian Hogarth, Partner at Plural, said: “Applying 20 years of deep research and learning in photonics to create a better AI infrastructure demonstrates how much more innovation there is to come to help reap the benefits of this technology. The team behind Oriole Networks have proven experience in both company building and bringing deep science to commercialisation and are creating a fundamental shift in the design of next generation networked systems that will reduce latency and slash the energy impact of data centres on which we now rely.”
