Aarna Networks Secures $6.7M in Series A Funding to Boost AI Cloud Software Development

Exfinity Ventures Invests in Aarna.ml's $6.7M Series A Round to Accelerate the Company's AI Cloud Software Efforts

Aarna.ml, a leading provider of open-source GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) AI Cloud software, is excited to announce that Exfinity Venture Partners has joined the company's Series A funding round of $6.7M. This investment marks a significant step in Aarna's mission to transform the AI Cloud landscape. Aarna. ml plans to utilize the fresh capital to accelerate product development for the GPU cloud management use case. This news comes on the heels of Aarna.ml's successful Series A round, which closed in October 2023 with $5.5 million raised from prominent investors like NVIDIA, LDV Partners, 3Lines, CARAT Venture Partners, and others. This additional funding brings the total Series A investment to $6.7 Million. Aarna.ml enables GPU-as-a-service providers and NVIDIA Cloud Partners (NCP) to offer hyper scaler-grade multi-tenant GPU instances with full isolation while leveraging a common underlying GPU pool. This new funding will help Aarna extend its platform to the GPU reference architectures that include high-speed networks and storage. The company lists Tigo, LGE, Equinix, Keysight, CableLabs, and CapGemini Engineering as its customers. Amar Kapadia, Co-founder and CEO of Aarna.ml commented, "We are thrilled to partner with Exfinity Venture Partners. Beyond the financial support, Exfinity's expertise in scaling deep-tech startups in cross-border settings will significantly aid our expansion. With Exfinity's backing, we are poised to extend our reach and enhance our impact in the industry." Chinnu Senthilkumar, Managing Partner at Exfinity Ventures, stated "Our investment in Aarna.ml underscores the immense potential and value of Aarna's innovative solutions in the AI Cloud sector. The collaboration aims to drive forward the adoption of multi-tenant GPU instances, ensuring robust and isolated environments for diverse AI workloads." Sriram Rupanagunta, Co-founder and SVP of Engineering at Aarna.ml added, "This investment will strengthen our commitment to delivering the most advanced GPU Cloud Management Software in the market. We are eager to explore the new opportunities this partnership presents." Aarna.ml was founded in 2018 and is based in San Jose, California, and Bengaluru India. Aarna's founders, Amar and Sriram, were founders at a 10GbE DPU startup called Aarohi Communications (acquired by Emulex) and the core team's expertise is in host-based technologies and cloud computing.

Aarna Bags Funding From Exfinity Venture Partners To Offer GPU-As-A-Service

Founded in 2018, Aarna Networks offers open-source AI cloud management software to GPU-as-a-service AI cloud vendors and data center providers Bengaluru-based SaaS AI cloud management startup Aarna Networks has raised $1.2 Mn (about INR 10 Cr) as part of its Series A funding round from Exfinity Venture Partners. The startup plans to utilise the fresh funds towards accelerating product development for GPU management, market expansion and boosting its reach. Aarna Networks had raised $5.5 Mn in Series A funding last year from a clutch of investors -- including NVIDIA, LDV Partners, 3Lines, CARAT Venture Partners, among others. The latest funding from Exfinity brings the total investment in the Series A round to $6.7 Mn. Founded in 2018 by serial entrepreneurs Amar Kapadia and Sriram Rupanagunt, Aarna Networks offers open-source AI cloud management software to GPU-as-a-service AI cloud vendors and data center providers. Its flagship product, AMCOP (Aarna Networks Multi-cluster Orchestration Platform), automates cloud-native 5G network services and edge computing applications using intent-based orchestration, lifecycle management, and real-time closed-loop automation. Notably, Aarna featured in the January 2022 edition of Inc42's flagship '30 Startups To Watch' series. In 2021, Aarna raised $3.5 Mn in its seed funding round led by SVQuad Ventures, with participation from Inventus Capital, RiSO Capital and Arka Ventures. Commenting on the latest funding, Aarna cofounder and CEO Kapadia said, "Beyond the financial support, Exfinity's expertise in scaling deep-tech startups in cross-border settings will significantly aid our expansion. With Exfinity's backing, we are poised to extend our reach and enhance our impact in the industry." The investment from Exfinity will further the company's goal to deliver advanced GPU cloud management software, according to Rupanagunta. The funding comes at a time when homegrown SaaS and AI-based startups are attracting significant interest from investors. For instance, in February, GenAI SaaS startup Vodex raised seed funding of $2 Mn (around INR 16 Cr) from Unicorn India Ventures and Pentathlon Ventures.