Ethernetics announced today that it has successfully completed a €1.5 million funding round. The funds will be used for product development, business development, and market expansion. This funding round was underwritten by private investors from the networks of BeAngels, BAN Flanders, and Ventures4Growth. In addition, the management team will be supplemented with some experienced entrepreneurs to manage the international launch.
The need for Data Center capacity doubles every 6 to 8 years. But therein also lies the challenge, as Data Centres are responsible for 2% to 3% of global electricity consumption. This is unsustainable. International bodies (such as the European Union with the Green Deal) have therefore decided that data centres must be CO2 neutral by 2030 and, in the meantime, demonstrate the efforts they are making to achieve this.
Ethernetics' solution is a Smart Power Distribution Unit (PDU) in which electricity consumption in every server rack is measured and optimised in real time. Thanks to the self-developed AI-driven algorithm, irregularities and inefficiencies in power consumption are monitored, optimised and removed with significant energy savings at the source.
For a Data Center, through the application of Ethernetics Smart PDU, there is a double impact: a direct gain through reduced electricity consumption at the servers, and an indirect gain through less heat produced, so less cooling is required. An extensive test period with customers showed a direct impact of more than 10% on electricity consumption. The first production units will be installed at customers' premises this autumn.
Robert Leune, founder: "We see it when a server in a rack is working too hard, and another is doing nothing or little. We also see when a power supply is no longer working properly. Thanks to our AI algorithms, we can now take automated actions to reduce power consumption. Still, we can also immediately collect data for predictive maintenance, and that's what every data centre manager and their customers will love to hear."
Management reinforcement
Ethernetics was founded in 2018 by Gert De Spiegeleer and Robert Leune; both are still actively involved in the company's expansion.
This spring, Ethernetics was reinforced with a team of experienced entrepreneurs who are taking an active role in the further expansion and also contributing their own capital: Luc Bossaert (CEO), Olivier Poot(COO), Hugues WILLIAMSON(CFO) and Christian Vermeiren (Chairman).
"Each of us brings specific experience to bring Ethernetics' unique product to market this year and meet the high industry demand for innovative, AI-driven solutions to the high electricity and carbon footprint of this fast-growing sector," said Luc Bossaert.