AI Startup Inferact Raises $150M to Bring vLLM to Market
The team behind the widely-used open source AI tool vLLM has officially turned their project into a venture-backed company, Inferact, securing $150 million in seed funding at a valuation of $800 million.
The funding round was co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Venture Partners, confirming earlier reports from TechCrunch that vLLM had attracted investment from a16z.
Following the Path of SGLang’s Commercialization
Inferact’s launch echoes a similar trend in AI software commercialization. The SGLang project, now operating under the name RadixArk, reportedly raised capital at a $400 million valuation, led by Accel, as reported earlier this week.
As the AI sector shifts focus from model training to model deployment, also called inference, technologies like vLLM and SGLang are increasingly valuable. They enable AI systems to run faster and more cost-effectively, drawing strong interest from investors.
Roots at UC Berkeley
Both vLLM and SGLang began life in 2023 at the UC Berkeley lab founded by Databricks co-founder Ion Stoica, providing a strong research foundation before moving toward commercialization.
Early Adoption by Major Companies
Simon Mo, Inferact’s CEO and one of vLLM’s original creators, told Bloomberg that the tool is already being used by significant players, including Amazon Web Services and a popular shopping app, demonstrating early traction and industry relevance.
With this funding, Inferact aims to expand the adoption of vLLM across AI applications, helping businesses integrate high-speed, cost-efficient AI inference into their operations.
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