[Funding alert] AI startup Blaize raises $71M in Series D led by Franklin Templeton and Temasek

Blaize, the AI computing innovator revolutionising edge and automotive computing solutions on Wednesday announced it has raised $71 million in Series D round led by Franklin Templeton, a new investor, and existing investor Temasek. DENSO and other new and existing investors also participated in this round.

To accelerate the product roadmap and scale the business with this funding, the company plans to rapidly expand its Hyderabad, India operations in the next 12 - 18 months.

Speaking about the investment, JP Scandalios, senior vice president and portfolio manager, Franklin Templeton stated,

“Blaize has demonstrated the capability to enable value creation for organisations, tapping the power of AI for edge computing.We are excited to invest as Blaize leadership takes strides to realise their vision.

Automotive, and numerous edge AI markets, such as retail and metro, hold tremendous potential for Blaize to expand on their early market position as the adoption of AI at the edge accelerates, creating a new wave of industrial systems.”

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In 2020, Blaize successfully released and built a multi-year pipeline for the first generation Blaize AI edge computing hardware and software products with customer opportunities in the US, Europe, Japan, and Asia.

Dinakar Munagala, CEO, Blaize said,

“We are pleased with the participation of new and existing premier investors in the Series D round. We are well positioned to accelerate our next generation products and sustain our lead in delivering integrated hardware and software offerings that enable true value creation for our customers.”

Prior to the Series D, Blaize had secured $87 million in equity funding from strategic and venture investors  DENSO, Daimler, SPARX Group, Magna, Samsung Catalyst Fund, Temasek, GGV Capital, Wavemaker and SGInnovate. With headquarters in El Dorado Hills (CA), Blaize has teams in Campbell (CA), Cary (NC), and subsidiaries in Hyderabad (India), Manila (Philippines), and Leeds and Kings Langley (UK), with 300+ employees worldwide.