Scaling Oriole Networks from the university lab to reduce energy consumption of AI data centres globally
with James Regan, CEO and Prof. George Zervas CTO Oriole Networks
Posted
Founder Stories University Edition is a collection of fireside chats with the leading academic founders backed by the AlbionVC team. Having invested in over 30 university spinouts from the leading UK universities including UCL, Imperial College London, University of Oxford and University of Cambridge, the series highlights personal stories of those who made the leap from academia to entrepreneurship.
In this episode David Grimm, Partner AlbionVC chats with James Regan, CEO Oriole Networks and Prof. George Zervas, co-founder & CTO Oriole Networks on the spark behind the company’s rapid rise.
Oriole Networks leverages advanced photonics technology to address AI’s energy consumption. Founded in 2023 as a spin-out from University College London (UCL), the company is built on over two decades of pioneering research in optical networks by scientists Professor George Zervas, Alessandro Ottino, and Joshua Benjamin. Led by CEO James Regan, who previously founded EFFECT Photonics, Oriole’s experienced commercial team aims to solve the growing sustainability challenges in AI.
James and George attribute their unique blend of academic and professional experience, and ‘immediate chemistry’ as the key to building momentum in the early days. George reflects on the moment they made the decision to spin out from UCL: “understanding the demand for AI and the maturity of the research came to an inflection point where we have extremely good technology, we have the right people from the university and now it is the time to explore it through the UCL Tech Fund.”
Oriole Networks raised an initial pre-seed funding from us via the UCL Technology Fund. It then went on to raise a $10m seed round led by us, XTX Ventures, Clean Growth Fund, and Dorilton Ventures. Most recently the company raised a further $22m Series A led by Plural, bringing the total funding raised to date to $35m.
James Regan, CEO Oriole Networks said: “There’s a whole sort of suite of expertise that, that we’re seeing in Albion – the commercial and the marketing side – Albion and UCL Tech Fund were able to bring us a lot to help us just go through that early, early journey.”
The duo discuss why Oriole is going to be the winner in the space based on their co-design principles across the whole stack and a full product solution enabling the company to unlock LLMs and AI systems that are currently network bound.
They go on to explore the unique team that has come together to tackle engineering and commercial challenges, the rationale for raising $35m in 12 months and the importance of industry connections for the development of applied research.
They conclude by looking ahead on what’s next for the company as they look to address AI’s power consumption and speed issues.
AI will transform everything.
James Regan, CEO Oriole Networks
The challenges, the resources that are required to make it work are enormous in terms of hardware and energy efficiency. And this is a problem that really we’re here to solve. How can you build AI with the power to solve the biggest problems that society is facing, right? In terms of drug discovery and climate change, without itself causing that climate change through humongous power consumption.
So something has to be done.’
Oriole Networks is on a mission to enable the full potential of AI while significantly reducing the energy consumption. More about the company here.
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