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Appoints New UK-based Head of Business Development Chris Kenny
PALO ALTO, Calif., Nov. 2, 2020 — SambaNova Systems, the company building the industry’s most advanced systems platform to run artificial intelligence (AI) and data-intensive applications from the data center to the cloud and to the edge, today announced an international expansion with the appointment of Chris Kenny, head of business development for the EMEA region based in London. The appointment comes on the heels of a Series C funding round led by BlackRock, during which the company committed to leading the burgeoning AI and ML computing market worldwide.
“Recently, we have seen a dramatic increase in use cases for machine learning and at the same time, a significant increase in the compute power needed to run these resource-intensive applications,” said Rodrigo Liang, Co-founder and CEO, SambaNova Systems. “As organizations around the world are grappling with this challenge, SambaNova is rising to meet this international demand. Given Chris Kenny’s unparalleled experience and understanding of the EMEA market, there is no one better to lead SambaNova’s expansion.”
“The UK’s highly skilled workforce and dedication to world-class innovation continues to make it one of the most attractive business environments for tech investors around the world,” said Lord Gerry Grimstone, UK Minister for Investment. “As our economy recovers from the impact of Covid-19, inward investment will help us to build back better. I am pleased to welcome SambaNova Systems to join the UK’s vibrant tech landscape and look forward to seeing their continued success here. I also look forward to supporting other global tech firms considering the UK as their next market and to showing them all that we have to offer.”
With more than 20 years of international management experience, Chris will drive the company’s global expansion throughout EMEA. With a background in leading cloud, AI and “software defined X” technology companies through growth stages, Chris will oversee business and sales development, operations and strategy within the region.
Previously, Chris served as vice president and general manager at Versa Networks and international vice president at DataDirect Networks. He has extensive knowledge of growing both customer acquisition and revenue in countries both in and out of the European Union and throughout the Middle East and Africa.
“With the unparalleled deep bench of technical expertise and visionary leadership at SambaNova, it’s an exciting time to join the company and lead EMEA expansion efforts,” said Chris Kenny, head of business development EMEA. “Right now there’s an overwhelming trend toward the digital world driving the need for new architectures that deliver greater accuracy and performance than those that have evolved from graphics or commodity legacy architectures. SambaNova is at the forefront of this innovation and I’m confident in the company’s vision and look forward to building this next chapter together.”
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About SambaNova Systems
Customers turn to SambaNova to quickly deploy state-of-the-art generative AI capabilities within the enterprise. Our purpose-built enterprise-scale AI platform is the technology backbone for the next generation of AI computing.
Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, SambaNova Systems was founded in 2017 by industry luminaries, and hardware and software design experts from Sun/Oracle and Stanford University. Investors include SoftBank Vision Fund 2, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, Intel Capital, GV, Walden International, Temasek, GIC, Redline Capital, Atlantic Bridge Ventures, Celesta, and several others. Visit us at sambanova.ai or contact us at info@sambanova.ai. Follow SambaNova Systems on Linkedin.
