AI network startup Eridu emerges from stealth with hefty $200M Series A

Drew Perkins has been inventing machine web tech and gathering startups since the dawn of the net age.

Now he’s backmost arsenic a co-founder and CEO of AI networking startup Eridu that’s officially coming retired of stealth connected Tuesday with an oversubscribed $200 cardinal Series A round. The circular was led by Socratic Partners, renowned VC John Doerr, Matter Venture Partners, and others. Eridu has present raised a full of $230 million, the institution said.

Perkins began his vocation successful the 1980s, and helped make the Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) that became a cardinal portion of TCP/IP, the protocol upon which the net relies. In 1999, the optical power institution helium co-founded, Lightera Networks, was sold to Ciena for implicit $500 million. Next was Infinera, which IPO’d and was aboriginal sold to Nokia for $2.3 cardinal successful 2025. He besides co-founded Gainspeed (also sold to Nokia) and, astir recently, the AR startup Mojo Vision. 

But aft OpenAI released ChatGPT, Perkins had an epiphany. In February 2023, Perkins and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman were speaking astatine a tiny conference. They got to chatting, and “Sam told maine that what enabled AI and ChatGPT was conscionable tremendous amounts of compute. At which time, I deliberation helium meant 4,000 GPUs, but present we’re talking astir millions of GPUs,” Perkins told TechCrunch. 

He realized from that speech that the bottleneck to advancement won’t conscionable beryllium entree to much chips; it volition beryllium the methods the chips usage to pass with 1 different crossed their systems.

“What we needed to bash successful the networking sector, successful the networking industry, was travel up with a brand-new mode of reasoning astir however you physique networks and physique web equipment, web chips, and the full thing.” 

By precocious 2023, Perkins had met his co-founder, Omar Hassen, whose roots are successful networking spot plan for the large manufacture players similar Broadcom and Marvell. In 2024, they founded Eridu.

They began to rethink machine networking from scratch starting with the silicon, meaning caller chips designed for AI that integrate much networking functionality.  

Eridu volition yet merchantability implicit systems that instrumentality the spot successful an AI information halfway that a classical web cogwheel provider, similar Arista Networks, takes successful a classical information center. These systems volition regenerate galore tiered optical connections with on-chip communications.  

Today, erstwhile much networking is needed, much boxes are added, which increases the fig of hops each information spot whitethorn person to question and increases latency – which contributes to that hold betwixt typing successful a punctual and getting a reply. 

Eridu is moving connected a power that puts much functions connected the spot itself. “So present I’m redeeming a ton of power, I’m redeeming a ton of cost, and past my web is overmuch much reliable due to the fact that the optics are the slightest reliable portion of the network,” Perkins said. 

“GPU compute and representation bandwidth are improving by astir 10x per year, portion information halfway switches from Broadcom, Marvell, Cisco, etc. are inactive lone improving 2–3x each 2–3 years,” Perkins added. 

The founders made a fewer calls to VCs who Perkins has known implicit the years and landed Wen Hsieh arsenic a cardinal investor. Hsieh is the founding managing spouse of Matter Venture Partners and antecedently helped pb Kleiner Perkins’ China investing group.  

Hsieh told Doerr astir Eridu, aft which the legendary erstwhile Kleiner Perkins capitalist (who had backed 1 of Perkins’ erstwhile startups) besides wanted in. That acceptable disconnected a VC frenzy.

“My telephone has been ringing disconnected the hook,” Perkins said. “It’s been a amusive clip raising wealth for this task …  we’re precise oversubscribed.” 

Perkins would not remark connected valuation but to accidental that it is comparable to others raising this overmuch successful a Series A circular and that helium feels it’s not excessively low, nor excessively high. He wants his 100 oregon truthful existent employees to bash good connected their banal options. He besides declined to remark connected whether the startup had achieved unicorn presumption (valued astatine implicit $1 billion). 

Needless to say, if Eridu tin present connected its committedness to make a caller benignant of AI-friendly networking spot and system, it volition beryllium successful the mediate of the largest information halfway build-out successful history.

And, dissimilar a vibe-coded merchandise built by a 20-something assemblage dropout, Eridu’s founders person thing progressively uncommon successful Silicon Valley these days: heavy experience. All of that bodes good for the company’s future.

Other leads successful the circular see Hudson River Trading and Capricorn Investment Group, with information by SBVA, MediaTek, Bosch Ventures, TDK Ventures, Eclipse and VentureTech Alliance (an investing conveyance of spot fab elephantine TSMC), among others.