Israel-based startup Pliops is currently witnessing a valuation drop amidst a merger with French data processing solutions provider Kalray. Its valuation exceeded $650 million in August 2022 when it secured a funding of $100 million. It is learned that shareholders will only receive about $100 million worth of Kalray shares in the latest deal. This reflected a decline of more than 80 percent.
Pliops specializes in acceleration solutions for AI and storage servers in data centers. It was founded in 2017. It has accumulated over $200 million funding from supporters like Intel Capital, NVIDIA and SoftBank Ventures Asia. Its valuation prior to the merger was between $650-700 million.
The merger terms reveal Kalray shareholders will own 65% of the new entity and Pliops shareholders will hold up to 35% of the same. However, the Pliops shareholders may hold 40% upon meeting certain strategic milestones.
Kalray is currently valued at around $150 million. It will issue new shares to Pliops shareholders as part of the merger. Hence, it is expected that the combined value of the new entity will be about 240 million euros. The value of Pliops will be at about $100 million.
Eyal Waldman, founder of Mellanox and Chairman of Waldo Holdings, expressed his optimism about the merger. He has been on the Pliops board since 2020. He lately became chairman of Pliops.
Waldman said that the business opportunities would be enhanced with the merge of the two companies. Similarly, Kalray CEO Eric Baissus emphasized the strategic potential of the merger. He said that they aim to become the global leader in data acceleration solutions for storage and AI GPUs with the new merger.
